When the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) hears the inevitable appeal and considers the Sea-King District's recommendation to strip Chief Sealth of its two Washington State 3A championships, let's hope that Mike Colbrese's body gets this one key fact straight: This is not our recruiting scandal.
The promises and lies were made by the Chief Sealth girl's basketball coaching staff under Ray Willis. The documents - leases and receipts - were falsified by him, his assistants Laura Fuller or Amos Walters or, at the very least, some third party acting on their behalf. The crimes against our sport were validated by the inaction - or, worse, negligence - of the Sealth administration, the Seattle School District that took too long to investigate and did too little, and the Metro League, which was too timid and too protective of its own to take any substantive action.
Let's hope the WIAA capitalizes on its opportunity to remove the taint of this egregious and audacious scandal from the state and places it squarely where it belongs - on the offending program. Believe us, it will not be a small difference. As we travel around the country, Washington state is known as the place where the huge recruiting scandal took place. Going forward, this should be the Chief Sealth recruiting scandal, with Washington known as the state that did something about following the rules.
The WIAA can square things by confirming penalties brought by the Sea-King District board, which voted on Monday to force Chief Sealth to forfeit all postseason games in 2005 and 2006, ban Sealth from postseason play in 2007, and recommend that the WIAA strip the Seahawks of the 2005 and 2006 State 3A titles.
Except for the postseason ban, the penalties largely are symbollic. The only way for Sealth to feel at least part of the sting would be forcing the team, coaches and parents to attend pep assemblies at River Ridge and Issaquah, during which state championship trophies would be transferred. Even then, there is little anyone can do to erase the joy and accomplishment the Sealth players felt while winning all those games, just as there is nothing that can dry the tears of disapppointment and, even, perceived failure that were shed by the players at River Ridge and Issaquah.
In its wisdom, the Sea-King District board did about as much as it could to force the lesson to sink in. By banning Sealth from postseason play in 2007, it seized on a teaching moment with regard to the players central in the recruiting scandal. While we agree that the adults were the ones who masterminded and executed the violations that comprised the worst recruiting scandal in this state's history, we also agree that the children need to be sent a clear, unequivocable message that what happened was wrong.
To be impacted by someone else's mistakes is part of life. So is learning to trust people who deserve that trust.
And maybe next time adults conspire to cheat, a teenager will speak her mind, take a stand and make a difference.
After all, it's that very thing that good teachers and good coaches alike attempt to instill in their students and players.
The only remaining loose end would be the fate of Ray Willis. Returning Sealth players supposedly have been told that Fuller and Walters definitely are out, but that the status of Willis continues to be unresolved. Willis continues to be employed at Sealth as a counselor and, according to several college coaches, continues to represent some of the Sealth players in recruiting discussions. There is talk that Willis may attempt to ride the coattails of one of Sealth's highly recruited prospects to his next job.
It seems appropriate that Willis be subjected to measures that will have a lasting effect on his employability as a basketball coach, as well as in any capacity related to education. He not only cheated, inflicting a massive scandal upon his school and region, he betrayed the trust of his players and misrepresented the school as a whole.
In retrospect, Eastside Catholic merely passed on its problem and made it someone else's. That dubious chain needs to be broken now. It's time for the buck to stop. It's the only way the stain on our game and our region is going to be contained. This may not be our scandal, but it certainly should be our response.
Glenn Nelson is the publisher and founder of HoopGurlz.com. He also founded and coached the Dragons and Northwest HoopGurlz select girl's basketball teams. Glenn previously was the editor-in-chief at Scout.com and a longtime, national-award-winning basketball columnist and writer for The Seattle Times. His work also has appeared in several books and national magazines. He is co-author of "Rising Stars: The Ten Best Players in the NBA" (Rosen Publishing, 2002). For more on Glenn's World, click here [0]. He can be reached at glenn@hoopgurlz.com [1].