When the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association announced July 25 it would strip the Chief Sealth girls basketball team of its state titles, it was a sad day for high school girls basketball but it was the right thing to do, several area coaches said.
The WIAA executive board ruled the West Seattle school violated association rules by recruiting players with promises of starting spots and college scholarships. It must forfeit all its games for the past four years and give up its state Class 3A titles from 2005 and 2006.
“I think for a lot of coaches they’re relieved,” Meadowdale head coach Dan Taylor said. “It at least brings everybody back to where it should be, where high school sports should be.”
In February, the rumors of recruiting allegations that had circulated around the program for several years were investigated and reported by the Seattle Times. That prompted the Seattle School District to launch its own investigation which verified the allegations in the newspaper report. The district enacted a two-year probation period for the school and dropped head coach Ray Willis and assistants Amos Walters and Laura Fuller.
“It gives all coaches, not only in Washington state, but across the nation, a heads up that there’s guidelines we need to follow as coaches,” Taylor said. “If (we) don’t there’s consequences.”
Willis, who aspired to coach college basketball, has denied recruiting players, according to the Times’ reports.
Jon Rasmussen, who coaches 3A Shorecrest, agreed that Sealth should lose its titles.
“Rules are made and we need to stand by them,” he said. “I think it’s a great decision. I feel sorry for the kids. I blame a lot of the parents on this, they should know better.”
The WIAA lacks the resources to do independent investigations of allegations and relies on schools to self-report violations. In the Sealth case, until the Times’ investigation publicized the allegations and forced the school district and WIAA to act, the actions of the coaches went unchecked.
“It’s sad to see it go that far for that long,” Rasmussen said.
The recruited players, who lived outside the school district boundaries, took roster spots away from student-athletes who were from the neighborhood and never got their shot, Rasmussen said. The Times research found in some instances coaches supplied fake leases to players who lived outside Seattle.
“It’s an unfortunate situation for the kids who’ve been there and kids who didn’t get to play,” he said.
Chief Sealth principal John Boyd told the Times he thought it was unfair to punish the students for the wrongdoing of adults, but some coaches disagree.
“The kids, in my opinion, that were recruited by those coaches knew what was going on,” Archbishop Murphy head coach John Barhanovich said. “To say that the punishment to those kids is too much, I don’t buy into that theory. You’re responsible for your own actions.”
All the Seahawk players, including their leading scorer, Regina Rogers, who was recruited, will be able to play next season.
The ultimate goal of some players, including some of those recruited to Sealth by Willis, is to get a college scholarship. Parents who want the best for their child believe that if they are in the right program, that will help reach that goal.
However, most coaches believe that’s a promise a coach can’t make.
“It’s such a small percentage that gets a college scholarship, especially Division I,” Rasmussen said. “You have to be the elite of the elite.”
It’s ideal when a young person stays in the same school district and goes through the system with the same group of friends they grew up playing with, Barhanovich said.
Taylor agreed, saying, “You want kids of the community to be part of the program so the community can root them on, read about them in the paper.”
That sense of community is lost when parents start “shopping” for schools and that also hurts the player, several coaches said.
“Some lose sight of the fact that changing schools and finding the right school, switching schools, in the long run is a detriment to the player herself,” Barhanovich said.
“At the very end when the kid is a senior, very few get scholarships,” Barhanovich said. “Here’s a player who moved to a couple or three schools. In my opinion, the goal in high school is you’re there to get an education and (diploma). You’re not there to guarantee you’re going to earn a college scholarship.”
And with the proliferation of select basketball, “if the kid’s good enough they’re going to be seen wherever they’re going to school,” Rasmussen said.
Former Meadowdale girls coach Karen Blair, who led the Mavericks to two state titles and now coaches at Ballard, said good coaching is about getting the most out of the players you already have, as opposed to building an all-star team.
“For me, I’m all about what kids show up,” Blair said. “Let’s play to our strengths. It’s a team game and having a balance. A team can’t shut down any one person.”
The balance between public and private schools and ability to attract or keep top athletes also came up in the Sealth controversy. Sealth plays in the Metro League, which is a mix of private and public schools. The school was at the bottom of the league until Willis and his assistants arrived in 2002 and brought in the players that turned a cellar dweller into a national powerhouse.
Locally, the eight-school Cascade Conference includes two private schools, Archbishop Murphy and King’s, both of which excel in athletics.
Barhanovich said when he was hired at Archbishop Murphy some coaches he knew said, “now you’ll be able to recruit,” a common perception that he admits bothers him.
Barhanovich said he does not recruit, but said there is a built-in advantage he has now compared to when he coached girls basketball at Cascade in Everett and was limited to players within the school boundaries.
“There’s no question there’s an advantage to private schools because of the enrollment area,” Barhanovich said.
Still, he said, he prefers to stick with players who have been in the program since they were freshmen.
“It’s not easy to welcome kids from other schools,” he said. “I’m a loyal kind of guy to kids I’ve had in the program.”
It took Barhanovich eight years to make the state tournament at Cascade. His first team went 2-18. In his sixth season, the Bruins were competitive “with most teams on our schedule,” in year seven they were “very competitive” and made districts, before finally reaching the state semifinals his final year.
However, “every year at Archbishop Murphy we have a chance to compete for the league title and compete at district for a state tournament berth,” he said. The Wildcats have made the state tournament five out of the last six years. “At a public school that’s not possible on a year-in-and-year-out basis.”
It’s not impossible for a coach to come in and lead a public school team to a state title in a few years, he said, but the coach would have to be fortunate enough to have a talented group that had played together for years.
“It depends on what you have coming through your school in the public school system,” he said.
Even with their advantages, private schools don’t always keep players. Barhanovich said he had two players, one off the junior varsity and one off the varsity, transfer to public schools after last school year.
Even when coaches aren’t blatantly recruiting as it turned out the Sealth coaches were, a few student-athletes and their parents give false information so they can attend a certain school and play sports there.
“They lie about where they live,” said Terri McMahan, athletic director for the Edmonds School District. “It’s a common, common problem everywhere.”
The penalty, if you’re caught, is that the athlete loses a year of eligibility, regardless of where they attend school.
The Chief Sealth scandal unearthed an ugly side of high school sports, but it also offers coaches, players and parents a chance to regain perspective.
“It’s a sad day for high school basketball, two years in a row without a state (3A) champion not being listed,” Blair said. “It’s a symbolic thing to keep it sane, keep it safe. It’s just a game … like the slogan ‘playing fair.’ People need to get back to that.”
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