KingCo officials have upheld most of the sanctions placed on the Bellevue Wolverines football team and increased the sanctions against coaching staff, but have ruled that they do not have the authority to ban the team from post-season play.

In KingCo’s decision originally announced on June 7, the Bellevue football team would have been on probation through the 2019-2020 school year and would have been unable to compete in any post-season games, eliminating any chance the team would win a championship in that time.

After the district’s appeal last month, KingCo reduced their post-season play decision to a recommendation, noting that they do not have the authority to ban post-season play. If finalized, the post-season penalty will change the outlook of high school football in the area, as the Bellevue Wolverines football team has won 11 titles in the past 15 years.

KingCo also increased their sanctions against the coaches involved — Butch Goncharoff and Pat Jones. They ordered that the coaches will be suspended from all aspects of the Bellevue football program and any KingCo event for four years.

Many people outside of Bellevue have expressed via media that KingCo’s decision will level the playing field for sports statewide.

“If we’re lucky, it will tear apart the structure of high school sports in the state,” sportswriter Art Thiel wrote in a column for The Herald (which is owned by Sound Publishing, the Bellevue Reporter’s parent company). “Like an old barn somehow surviving in the Midwest’s Tornado Alley, it’s overdue to come down.”

However, shortly after KingCo announced their initial verdict, many Bellevue residents and educators began calling foul.

The Bellevue School District announced its decision to appeal KingCo’s penalties the next day. Superintendent Tim Mills stated that he wanted to hear what evidence KingCo used to back up its penalties, which he said were severe.

“They cited a ‘preponderance of evidence’ — we’re asking, what is that evidence?” Mills said.

Meanwhile, members of the School Board and the football program questioned the impact on students and the severity of the sanctions. The four-year probation would have meant that Bellevue students who aren’t in high school at this point would not get to compete for championships.

“The Committee considered ways to minimize the impact of the sanctions on the current students at Bellevue High School while at the same time balancing the magnitude of the violations and the ethical standards and rules of the WIAA …,” KingCo said in a statement. “The decision by this board does not affect the students in their primary endeavor to obtain personal academic excellence and if the sanctions affect the student athletes it is only because their leaders at Bellevue School District, including the Bellevue High School administration and coaches, failed to pay attention or intentionally violated WIAA Rules.”

Coach Goncharoff — whom the district has moved to fire but since placed on paid administrative leave — said that he felt the claims and investigations into the program that have unfurled over the last year have been a set-up.

“This has been a set-up since day one,” he said at a recent board meeting.

The school district can appeal this latest decision within 10 business days. They have yet to announce if they will do so.