Embattled Bellevue High School football coaches took another hit Friday as an executive board made up of high school principals increased penalties for the head coach and assistants for cheating.
The Kingco League and Conference Principal Executive Board rendered its decision Friday on the Bellevue Wolverine football program after the Bellevue School District appealed conference sanctions against the team. The panel said coaches involved in the cheating scandal should be banned from the field for four years, instead of the original Kingco sanction of two years.
The panel decreased the severity of other sanctions. It lifted a four year ban on post season play for the team because the principals said the conference doesn’t have the authority to ban post season play. However the executive panel recommended that Bellevue not be able to play post-season for that time period.
A school district investigation into the program published this spring found coaches and boosters cheated by recruiting players and paying for them to attend an easy alternative high school to remain eligible for play. It also found head coach Butch Goncharoff was inappropriately paid by the booster club to lead the team. Goncharoff fiercely denies any wrongdoing.
The executive board also reduced sanctions to “lessen the impact on student athletes.” The sanction of limiting Bellevue High School varsity and jr. varsity teams to 3A league games only for two years will now only apply to the varsity squad and the sanction is reduced from two seasons to one.
The sanction of banning non-league football games for two years was reduced to apply only to the varsity team and the sanction was reduced from two years to one.
“(The revised) sanctions are imposed with the dual goal of penalizing the wrongdoers for violations of WIAA Rules and deterring future WIAA Rule violations,” wrote the board.
The Bellevue School District was represented by former Attorney General Rob McKenna in the appeal.
On Tuesday the Bellevue School District switched its plan to fire Coach Goncharoff and instead placed him on paid administrative leave.
