Report condemns Bellevue HS, finds program ‘tilted’ football field for years

Bellevue High School committed “significant and long-standing” violations, according to a 68-page report detailing the results of an independent investigation into the school’s nationally recognized football team.

The report says player families provided false addresses to gain eligibility. Coaches — with evidence of head coach Butch Goncharoff playing a leading role — directed and encouraged Bellevue football players to attend a private alternative school that The Seattle Times had last summer reported was a “diploma mill” for athletes.

One football player backed that label, describing the school as a “joke” and “day care” for athletes, according to the report, which was released Tuesday afternoon.

Bellevue has won 11 state titles in 16 years and was ranked as the No. 1 high school football team in the country by Sports Illustrated in 2012.

The report said at least seven football players received substantial tuition discounts, violating Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) rules that prohibit special “remunerations” or “inducements” for athletes, including “free or reduced tuition.”

Bellevue football boosters in an emailed statement shortly after the report was released refuted the findings, saying the investigators showed blatant bias, harassment and “aggressive and prejudiced tactics.”

Goncharoff wanted one player to take four summer classes “to replace the grades he had received at BHS,” investigators wrote after the player had received four F’s in his Bellevue High classes, making him ineligible to play football. The report shows the student took the same four classes at Academic Institute and received three B’s and an A.

The findings — backed by transcripts, emails, interviews and district documents — were established even though administrators for the district and the high school “deliberately interfered with or obstructed” the inquiry, according to the report, which was written by two former federal prosecutors hired by the WIAA to investigate.

The WIAA did not disclose what penalties would be levied. They could include probation and the forfeiture of state championships.

In the report’s executive summary:

“The investigation established that for a number of years the actions of BHS coaches, the deliberate ignorance of District and BHS administrators, and the complicity of the Bellevue Wolverine Football Club (“Booster Club”) and its members, have unfairly tilted the football field in favor of the Bellevue High School football program and to the obvious detriment of opponents. Moreover, the investigation revealed that the Bellevue High School administrators and football coaches, as well as the Bellevue School District administrators knew, or should have known, of the multiple violations of WIAA rules and chose to overlook, or not thoroughly investigate, these breaches.”

This story was originally published April 26, 2016 at 7:32 PM with the headline "Report condemns Bellevue HS, finds program ‘tilted’ football field for years."