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Frustrated Bellevue High football players confront school board

BELLEVUE, Wash. — With the heartbreak of dropping the state high school WIAA 3A football championship behind them, Bellevue High School football players played a very different kind of defense at the Bellevue School Board meeting Tuesday night.

Several student-athletes expressed frustration to the board, after months of allegations ranging from illegal recruiting, to paying families to special academic privileges for players. Players not only vigorously denied the allegations, they told the board they needed support and protection from an investigation that they say targets black student-athletes.

One of them is Isaac Garcia, who has been mentioned in nationally published reports, suggesting he and his mother were recruited to move to Bellevue specifically so Garcia could play for what has become a football dynasty.

"Nobody ever gave us money to live here, no one ever even talked to us,” Garcia said, after addressing the school board. "My mom never talked to coach Butch (Goncharoff). “I think the first time she ever talked to coach Butch was my sophomore year. We came here based on statistics on their education, and obviously for the athletics, but we made that decision."

Some players told the school board the allegations into illegal recruiting have definite racial overtones.

"Pretty much all of the players that they named were black people that played football," said quarterback Justus Rogers, who says he's heard the same allegations made about him. Rogers, a top student enrolled in the Running Start program, will graduate in January and enroll early at Washington State University, where he has committed to play football.

(The allegations) haven't stopped," Rogers said. "It feels like we're unprotected, and like the school board hasn't really done anything to help us."

Senior Eron Kross, who transferred to Bellevue High from Florida, said he faced some questions from the district when he enrolled and joined the football team, but he said no-one accused him of being illegally recruited or encouraged to move to Bellevue. Kross, who is white, says he senses a different level of scrutiny for his black teammates.

"People like myself aren't targeted but rather my teammates of color," he said.

The WIAA has been investigating a myriad of allegations surrounding the Bellevue High football program since September. The team's head coach, Butch Goncharoff, was suspended earlier this season for coaching football-specific practices out of season, and for giving money to a player's family.

None of the players who spoke to the school board has been approached by investigators.

"I'd like to talk to them, so they know what's going on with us," Garcia said.

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