As a BHS alum, I am disappointed but not surprised by these findings. I don't doubt that they are at least somewhat factual--where there is an abundance of smoke, there is usually at least some fire.
I've been quite ambivalent about BHS football for a number of years because of my perception that this sort of thing was going on.
The ridiculous thing is that it wasn't even necessary for BHS to continue to be a powerhouse. Maybe they wouldn't have won 11 3A titles in 14 years, but they still could have easily had 6 or 7 without resorting to slimy tactics.
Bellevue already had huge advantages. The coaching is excellent, they have a genuinely great culture within the program and the youth program is top notch as well. Combine that with BSD's historically super-liberal open-enrollment policy and the coaching staff and boosters could have stayed on the straight and narrow and still had good players drop in their laps.
Back in the day there were people (one in particular comes immediately to mind) with strong Bellevue High School ties that demonstrated similar resolve in defending UW football and Don James. Now, sadly, only Bellevue High School gets defended from those that hate winning football programs.
As a BHS alum, I am disappointed but not surprised by these findings. I don't doubt that they are at least somewhat factual--where there is an abundance of smoke, there is usually at least some fire.
I've been quite ambivalent about BHS football for a number of years because of my perception that this sort of thing was going on.
The ridiculous thing is that it wasn't even necessary for BHS to continue to be a powerhouse. Maybe they wouldn't have won 11 3A titles in 14 years, but they still could have easily had 6 or 7 without resorting to slimy tactics.
Bellevue already had huge advantages. The coaching is excellent, they have a genuinely great culture within the program and the youth program is top notch as well. Combine that with BSD's historically super-liberal open-enrollment policy and the coaching staff and boosters could have stayed on the straight and narrow and still had good players drop in their laps.
There is no level of success in sports that is satisfactory. You are always left wanting more.
For months, the Bellevue football booster club refused to talk to investigators about its payments to head football coach Butch Goncharoff. Club president John Connors told The Seattle Times on Tuesday the club pays the celebrated coach about $60,000 a year — but only for activities unrelated to in-season coaching.
Connors, a former Microsoft CFO, said in an interview that Goncharoff has been paid “for a whole host of things,” including working on summer football camps, youth programs and other non-football events.
Rules from the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) require payments to a coach in excess of “$500 in a season” to be approved by the school board. Goncharoff’s payments were permissible, Connors said, because they weren’t for coaching during the season.
I haven't read the whole investigative report. I did read a reubttal to the report that the Bellevue football program put out.
Even without doing a great deal of digging, I feel fairly confident in coming to two conclusions:
1) The booster club and the Bellevue coaches broke some rules and bent some others, at a minimum.
2) The report that was released publicly wasn't exactly a totally unbiased and fact-based assessement. The investigators may be right in their broad conclusions, but the report is lacking in terms of specifics (in some cases) and in terms of citation of applicable rules (in other cases).
#2 doesn't necessarily invalidate #1. But this thing is going to get litigated, I'll bet.
School district leaders rebuked the Bellevue High football program Tuesday, declaring that there was “evidence of misconduct” and setting up a potential two-year ban for the team’s celebrated head coach.
In an acrimonious board meeting that lasted past midnight, Bellevue School District board members did not explicitly decide that head coach Butch Goncharoff would be subject to such a ban. But, in addressing concerns about the program, they said any coach found to have accepted money in violation of board policies should be ineligible to renew their contract for two years.
That sort of violation “should be dealt with severely,” said board president Christine Chew as the board issued guidance for district staff members to follow in the coming days.
The Bellevue booster club said recently that it has paid Goncharoff about $60,000 per year. But state rules require any coaching payment of more than $500 in a season to be approved by the school board — something that hasn’t happened at Bellevue, according to a recent investigative report from the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA).
The booster club has argued that the payments didn’t violate the rules because they were for activities other than in-season coaching, so the issue remains in dispute.
Bob Sulkin, an attorney for Goncharoff, said Wednesday the board’s announcement won’t impact the coach because “there were no violations.”
Board members said the WIAA report showed “evidence of misconduct and insufficient oversight.” The school now has the option of proposing its own sanctions to the KingCo Conference, and board members emphasized that they’d like to see sanctions impact adults instead of student-athletes.
Board members also said they would develop policies to require the booster club to provide detailed financial reports and require boosters to cooperate with any future WIAA investigation. The WIAA report had said the booster club was uncooperative.
As the board prepared its statement, attorney Marianne Jones, the wife of assistant coach Pat Jones, interrupted the board, accusing them of violating open-meetings law.
In reply, Chew said Jones was doing more damage than good by arguing over technicalities of the rules in the aftermath of the WIAA report. There was a bigger picture to consider, Chew said, such as what sorts of values the district wants to display for its students.
“The conversation should not be about walking a gray line,” she said.
“There’s no gray line,” Jones retorted. “It’s black and white. You guys just are ignorant enough not to know what is happening in your district.”
At one point, Jones moved to the front of the room and began recording the session on her phone. As the meeting ended after midnight, Jones approached the front of the room and threatened the board members:
“I will file an open public-meetings act violation against you guys in the morning. I’m serious. You guys will now have a lawsuit and now I’ll get all of your records in discovery.”
Bellevue cheated, flaunted it, everyone but the WIAA knew it, they finally grew a pair and found Bellevue guilty... And now... Butch Dyke is whining like a little bitch.
Butch is a FRAUD. All those fancy words he used to string together to motivate youth, now stand hollow... completely meaningless.
Bellevue cheated, flaunted it, everyone but the WIAA knew it, they finally grew a pair and found Bellevue guilty... And now... Butch Dyke is whining like a little bitch.
Butch is a FRAUD. All those fancy words he used to string together to motivate youth, now stand hollow... completely meaningless.
What I don't understand about all this is the notion that the booster club paying Butch $60K is some kind of big revelation. It has been well known that he receives $50,000+ annually for probably close to a decade.
If the coaches and boosters did all the shit that is being claimed, go after them for that.
What I don't understand about all this is the notion that the booster club paying Butch $60K is some kind of big revelation. It has been well known that he receives $50,000+ annually for probably close to a decade.
If the coaches and boosters did all the shit that is being claimed, go after them for that.
The Bellevue student newspaper covered it years ago.
Some BHS parents and boosters are getting very dramatic in their soapbox preaching on my facingbook feed:
Geoff, reputations are based on history, actions, records, and results. Reputations are also made by how one responds and/or weathers adversity. Those of us who stand with Butch do so because we know the man. Through years of personal experience we know and willingly vouch for his honesty, integrity, and moral compass. He's a family man and in this community he's family and In spite of accusations made by "anonymous" sources, in spite of an "investigation" conducted by individuals who appear to have an ulterior motive and who have crossed ethical boundaries to obtain hearsay evidence we stand by a man who has dedicated himself to our community and to a program whose players have admired since their days playing pee-wee football and who, long after their sports careers have faded into cherished memory, carry with them into adulthood the lessons Butch taught them: Team work, dedication, discipline, focus, respect, honor, community, and family to name just a few. What many people outside of our community do not and will never understand is that Butch is more than a football coach. In addition to a parent's guidance (and in some cases where that home dynamic was missing) He's a mentor to scores of young men who will move forward in life with values that are sadly missing in our country today. It's going to take more than a sensationalized headline or a jack-booted disingenuous inquiry to make THIS community see this man in any other way then what is known to be true and not the jaundiced image his detractors have painted.
Comments
I've been quite ambivalent about BHS football for a number of years because of my perception that this sort of thing was going on.
The ridiculous thing is that it wasn't even necessary for BHS to continue to be a powerhouse. Maybe they wouldn't have won 11 3A titles in 14 years, but they still could have easily had 6 or 7 without resorting to slimy tactics.
Bellevue already had huge advantages. The coaching is excellent, they have a genuinely great culture within the program and the youth program is top notch as well. Combine that with BSD's historically super-liberal open-enrollment policy and the coaching staff and boosters could have stayed on the straight and narrow and still had good players drop in their laps.
But, with the RC played, probably not going to result in anything.
KOMO NEWS
You must be joking.
In fucking BELLEVUE?!?
Yes, the WIAA hates the Chinese.
Christ.
Back in the day there were people (one in particular comes immediately to mind) with strong Bellevue High School ties that demonstrated similar resolve in defending UW football and Don James. Now, sadly, only Bellevue High School gets defended from those that hate winning football programs.
Bellevue booster club says it pays coach Butch Goncharoff $60,000 a year — but not for coaching the football team
Even without doing a great deal of digging, I feel fairly confident in coming to two conclusions:
1) The booster club and the Bellevue coaches broke some rules and bent some others, at a minimum.
2) The report that was released publicly wasn't exactly a totally unbiased and fact-based assessement. The investigators may be right in their broad conclusions, but the report is lacking in terms of specifics (in some cases) and in terms of citation of applicable rules (in other cases).
#2 doesn't necessarily invalidate #1. But this thing is going to get litigated, I'll bet.
School board rebukes Bellevue football program; possible two-year ban for coach Butch Goncharoff
Butch is a FRAUD. All those fancy words he used to string together to motivate youth, now stand hollow... completely meaningless.
If the coaches and boosters did all the shit that is being claimed, go after them for that.