Roosevelt Football: Scandal Substantiated by Fact-finder Report

J425 was first to report (in October) on the concerning allegations of transfer wrongdoing at Roosevelt. Eight months later, we check whether our claims fared well in the investigatory report.

SEATTLE — Roosevelt’s football coach and principal are out… and both the Roosevelt athletic director AND the district athletic director for Seattle Public Schools are facing multi-year probations after an investigation into improper football recruiting –  launched in part after J425 was first to report on the spate of Ford Sports Performance-linked players suddenly transferring to Roosevelt last year – resulted in findings of wrongdoing that will force Roosevelt to tear its football program down to the studs and rebuild.

Today, J425 obtained the 48-page investigatory report filed by the WIAA-appointed fact-finder, a Vancouver-area attorney who looked into allegations of wrongdoing at Roosevelt. 

Accordingly, we thought it’d be a good time to share that report with J425 readers – and to take a look back at whether the major claims made in J425 reporting were substantiated in the fact finder report — a copy of which is attached to the end of this post in full.

WIAA Smacks Down Sam Adams, Roosevelt with Series of Fines and Suspensions

Last week, the WIAA announced a series of severe sanctions and athletic suspensions after an independent fact finder’s report largely substantiated allegations of improper recruitment at Roosevelt High School’s football program. 

The multi-month investigation (that J425 was first to report on in October of 2024) found that leaders at Roosevelt and the Seattle School District repeatedly violated WIAA regulations in order to improperly recruit players. 

The following sanctions were announced last week:  

• Three Roosevelt coaches were fined $2,500 apiece, and two of them - head coach Sam Adams, the former Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman, and assistant coach Saul Patu, were suspended from all WIAA activities for one year. Dom Skene, who ran cover for Adams and Ford through social media, was also fined $2,500 by the WIAA.

• Roosevelt’s top administrators were hit hard as well, after the investigation showed they repeatedly deceived staff, students and the public in attempts to cover up wrongdoing. 

• Principal Tamara "Tami" Brewer and athletic director Danny Thompson were fined $2,500 apiece. 

• Thompson was placed on probation for three years and stripped of an upcoming role as the District 2 representative for girls flag football.

• Pat McCarthy, the Seattle Public Schools executive director of athletics was fined $2,500 and put on three years of probation. 

• Roosevelt forfeits all games played in the last two seasons (2023, 2024). The Roughriders won eight games before losing to Bellevue in the quarterfinals last fall.

• Roosevelt football was also hit with a one year post-season ban; and WIAA handed out one year athletic suspensions for any Roosevelt football players who knowingly provided falsified information as part of the transfer process.

The penalties handed out last week were just the beginning. But the fissures were enough to make Seattle Public Schools doubt the foundation of Roosevelt’s in house administration. Two days after the WIAA sanctions were announced, Seattle Puiblic Schools pulled  the Roosevelt Principal. Tami Brewer was placed on leave, with a district spokesperson issuing a statement: 

“Principal Tami Brewer will be on leave from her position at Roosevelt High School,” SPS wrote. “This will provide Seattle Public Schools an opportunity to review a set of findings related to Roosevelt that were recently released by the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association to determine next steps.”

Fact-finder Follows Up on J425’s Published Allegations of Serious Wrongdoing

As J425 was first to report last October, the WIAA decided to approve a factfinder investigation after two initial Roosevelt and/or Seattle Public Schools-led investigations failed to address key issues – while quickly clearing Roosevelt. These whitewashes err findings rankled the state coaching community. It seemed clear that someone or something was behind the phenomenon that led to18 of state’s top players (most of whom train at Ford Sports Performance) deciding en masse to leave their current schools in order to all simultaneously descend upon a middling 3A football school with a lengthy playoff drought

The WIAA ruled that a fact finder should be deployed in the Roosevelt matter in September. But due to delays and the resignation of the initial facfinder for health reasons, the person who ultimately became the factfinder (Marilee Scarborough of the greater Vancouver, WA area)  wasn’t tabbed until January, at which point the WIAA contracted with her to conduct a thorough investigation regarding athletic transfers at Roosevelt High School. 

So the end-product was clear (an investigatory report) and the factfinder was appointed. But what scope would the investigation be given?

J425’s initial reporting showed that the vast majority of transfer athletes were affiliated with Ford Sports Performance (FSP) or its owner, Tracy Ford. We also revealed that athletes were provided with an on-campus “club” where they could hang out without concern about being hassled about grades or attendance. Finally, J425 laid out how – and why – Roosevelt was leveraging McKinney Vento homeless school children designations to circumvent transfer and eligibility concerns.

Interestingly, it turns out that the fact-finder’s scope aligned almost exactly to the aforementioned areas: she’d look into “The Kennel”...she’d check for FSP links…and she’d look into whether McKinney Vento was being used correctly inside Roosevelt.

With the full release of the factfinder report today, we feel it’s a good time to check J425’s reporting against the findings of the report. How did we match up?

Roosevelt Football: A Scandal Substantiated

The concerns surfaced in The Journal 425’s reporting were comprehensively reflected in the Fact-Finding Report, which investigated and largely substantiated many of the initial allegations and subsequent claims. Here's how the concerns from the articles were addressed in the report (footnotes refer to the report itself, provided at the bottom of the post).

Allegations of Recruiting Violations and Numerous Transfers:

J425 Reporting: The initial article stated the Roosevelt football program was under investigation for "possible recruiting violations" after "at least a dozen highly-recruited student athletes transferred into the football program" [1].

Fact-Finding Report Reflection: The report explicitly states it was launched in response to "complaints filed with WIAA alleging illegal recruitment of football players" [2]. It confirms Roosevelt reported that "eighteen (18) students transferred into their football program for the 2024 season" [3]. The report concludes, based on a preponderance of evidence, that "recruiting of football players to Roosevelt High School occurred in violation of WIAA eligibility rules" [4].

Ties to a Common Athletic Training Facility (Ford Sports Performance - FSP):

J425 Reporting: The reporting noted "heavily-recruited players with ties to a common athletic training facility transferred to Roosevelt" [5], and an "FSP-linked recruit detailing efforts aimed at enticing the player to leave his current high school and transfer to Roosevelt" [6].

Keep Reading Past the Jump for the Full 48-page report.