Why? The WIAA Votes to Rescind Fines and Penalties Against Roosevelt Coaches and AD -- but Penalties Against Students, School Remain Intact
A blow-by-blow account of the puzzling WIAA decision...Also: download your own copy of the fact finder report and the minutes from the appeal in question.
“Roosevelt’s missteps are significant. The violations impacted a substantial number of football players and the following factors must be considered when determining a penalty: The lack of cooperation of Roosevelt staff, the violation of WIAA rules, the issues of fraud in the McKinney Vento federal homeless student program, the violation of the district’s own policies and procedures, disregard for the Seattle Student’s Athletic Handbook and for the lack of acknowledgement of the violations.” - WIAA Fact Finder Report
RENTON — The fines and penalties levied against former Roosevelt football coaches Sam Adams, Saul Patu and Dom Skene for recruiting violations were rescinded by vote of the WIAA Board late last month after the coaches and school athletic director at the center of the investigation appealed at a September 29 meeting.
The three coaches faced $2,500 fines and one year suspensions tied to multiple serious recruiting violations and WIAA/Seattle Public Schools policy violations documented in a 2025 report investigating the recruitment of at least 18 football players prior to the 2024 season.
While choosing not to contest the report’s findings or the penalties assessed against students and the school, the coaches all wanted their personal sanctions dropped: Adams said he’d been slandered and that he’d not done anything wrong. Patu said he’d never been given evidence that recruiting occurred; and that he’d referred any recruiting decisions to Adams.
The board also voted to drop the fines and penalties against Roosevelt Athletic Director Danny Thompson, who retained legal counsel and appealed his $2,500 fine and suspension on the grounds that he’d just been hired and the school district failed to properly train him.
Roosevelt’s violations represent a total system failure, therefore the remedy should proportionally represent the failure of the coaches and administrators to comply with the rules and the self-reporting system. Similar situations across the country resulted in coaches/administrators and the designated school receiving a designated time of suspension from participation in athletic activities by the member institution. - WIAA Fact Finder Report.
Given the credibility of the report compiled by a respected Vancouver area attorney, the mountains of direct evidence culled from investigations with witnesses, students and parents and the multi-month duration of the recruiting violations – the excuses given beggar belief.
The WIAA board has not detailed their reasoning in letting off the adults responsible for the scandal without either overturning the findings or prompting those responsible into accepting responsibility, much less fully complying with the probe itself.
How We Got Here: Fact Finder Report Reveals Complete Systemic Failure (June 2025)
An independent fact finder recommended the exceptional fines and suspensions for the aforementioned coaches and AD after an independent report found that “the Roosevelt coaches made offers and inducements to football players and their families to attend Roosevelt in violation of WIAA rules and the policies of Seattle Public Schools.”
According to the 47-page report published after five-plus months of investigation: “multiple individuals interviewed for the fact-finding named Saul Patu and Sam Adams as the coaches offering the transfer inducements.”
Further, the report concludes that the transfer athletes used false addresses to establish residency and fraudulently completed federal homeless program documents in a manner suggesting that students were “coached” on how to register as McKinney Vento students.
From the investigatory report:
“Roosevelt’s safeguards failed at every level.
Rule violations occurred at the point of student registration, when students used invalid addresses and misused the McKinney Vento program.
Rules used for athletic directors to verify the legitimacy of transfers failed when Roosevelt accepted incomplete registration packets.
Roosevelt coaches failed by complicit behavior regarding recruitment of football players.
Further, once students enrolled, coaches and the athletic director failed to hold athletes accountable by checking grades and attendance to ensure athletes remained eligible to compete.”
The fact-finder provides one example of a transfer student compiling over 40 absences and 60-plus tardies in just a portion of the initial semester.
“Finally, Roosevelt administrators failed to manage, supervise and respond effectively to inquiries from staff, students and other coaches concerned with violations of federal law, district policy and school procedures.”
These findings resulted in the recommendation of the most serious “Level 3” penalties against the involved coaches and administrators, resulting in $2,500 fines against the coaches and administrators paired with one-year suspensions for the coaches and three year probation periods for the administrators.1
The findings and recommended penalties were approved by the WIAA board last June, after a five month investigation that concluded Adams and his staff willfully and repeatedly breached WIAA recruiting regulations and failed to self-report or correct the violations when presented with the opportunity.
Deflect, Deny, Make Counter-accusations: Coaches and Administrators Reject Personal Responsibility
At the September WIAA board meeting, appellants in the Roosevelt matter divided into two camps: the Seattle School District and district athletic director Pat McCarthy; and Roosevelt coaches and athletic director Danny Thompson.
A lawyer for the Seattle School District opened by informing the board that the district accepted the fact-finder’s report and the responsibility for the violations. The district would not contest the institutional penalties, forfeitures, probations or the suspension from postseason2.
Further, the district argued that its administrator, Athletic Director Pat McCarthy should have his violations rescinded as he was only “mentioned briefly in the fact-finding report.”
District Appoints New Figure to Oversee Athletics
In a related matter, the district told the board that McCarthy no longer directly oversaw athletics: effective immediately, Assistant Superintendent for Accountability Ted Howard told the board that he’d been tasked with overseeing athletics, reporting directly to the superintendent. Howard added that this was a major change in the overall athletic culture of the district.
In contrast, the coaches and building AD Danny Thompson rejected responsibility and pointed fingers at the district. And despite choosing not to challenge the findings of the report, the coaches maintained they’d done nothing wrong and instead had suffered slurs, false accusations and/or defamatory attacks as a result of the investigation.
J425 has published eight stories detailing the recruiting activities of the aforementioned coaches, including specific accusations against Adams levied by former players and parents. J425 approached Adams for comment and response to our stories. Adams did not respond, nor did he contest our published accounts, nor did he ever request a correction to the record – all of which are the necessary steps one must take before bringing forth a reputational lawsuit.
Despite pledging cooperation and agreeing to the scope and procedure of the investigation in January, the investigation was hampered by delays and an ongoing refusal to provide key documents. At last month’s meeting, investigator Marilee Schofield told the board that Roosevelt was yet to provide any of the requested registration documents or email communication between the involved individuals.
Systemic Failure on Display
Thompson asked the WIAA board to rescind his fines in part because he wasn’t athletic director until two days before the football season, and because he wasn’t properly trained on SPS and WIAA regulations and procedures.
An attorney representing Thompson asked that the fee assessed to him be waived and other sanctions be reduced due to “lines of authority within SPS” and an overall lack of training provided to him on SPS and WIAA rules, regulations and procedures, particularly since he was hired for the position only two days prior to the opening of the football season.
Adams denied all allegations of “illegal recruiting” and asked the board to drop his fines due to “inaccuracies in the fact finding report, false accusations and slanderous comments”. Directing fire back at the district, Adams said that “any student that called or showed up at Roosevelt High School was sent to the district for clearance”.
Adams told the board that he has hired a lawyer to defend his character, particularly by allegations from anonymous sources. Adams represented himself at the appeal.
Assistant Coach Saul Patu, in turn placed blame on Adams, claiming that he “directed all WIAA eligibility questions to the head coach, collaborated with the head coach to confirm academic standing each grading period and referred all transfer inquiries to the head football coach – but provided no advice or inducements.
Attorney Vicki Curry addressed the board for Patu who was cited for improper recruiting and for running a private club for football players (known as “the Kennel”) out of a Roosevelt classroom – a service for which Patu’s non-profit received two $80,000 cash disbursements from a sole-source contract approved by former Roosevelt principal Tami Brewer.
Through Curry, Patu “requested reconsideration for allegedly violating four WIAA handbook rules, claiming that he was never provided with evidence to validate that any recruiting took place.”
Patu did not directly address the two $80,000 payments his non-profit was issued for operating “the Kennel” inside Roosevelt High School. The board minutes note that they obtained documentation substantiating that The Kennel was in fact created as a benefit specifically for football players.
A lawyer for the Seattle School District opened by informing the board that the district accepted the fact-finder’s report and the responsibility for the violations. The district would not contest the institutional penalties, forfeitures, probations or the suspension from postseason. - WIAA Minutes.
Next up was Dom Skene, whose recruiting activity was documented in J425 reports, after area players submitted screen caps of direct messages sent by the former Roosevelt assistant. Skene did not appear in person, providing a letter to support his request for reconsideration of fines and suspensions assessed.
Before moving on to the board’s decision, it’s helpful to review the context in which the penalties against the coaches and AD were handed out.
The Origins of the Investigation
The investigation into alleged improper recruiting at Roosevelt was officially launched in late September of last year, after a WIAA member lodged an official complaint.
Documents show that Wesco’s Kamiak High School lodged a formal complaint with the WIAA, stating that a Kamiak football player had been approached by Roosevelt staff and enticed to transfer with offers of benefits and college scholarships.
Specifically, Kamiak asked the WIAA to look into Roosevelt connections with Ford Sports Performance and an on campus benefit known as “The Kennel”, which the complaint described as a private club for athletes. The WIAA and Roosevelt later agreed to a scoping of the inquiry that included probing FSP connections and looking into “The Kennel”.
The report found that FSP CEO Tracy Ford was aware of Adams’ recruiting violations and allowed his former employee Sam Adams access to athletes training at FSP. This was substantiated by interviews with parents and athletes who provided phone and social media records.
In October of 2024, J425 reported that a former Metro Offensive Player of the Year provided evidence that he was recruited to Roosevelt.
The player provided direct messages from former Coach Dom Skene and recalled phone calls from Sam Adams with the player and his mother. The player said Adams offered “an address, money and offers” in return for the player’s transfer. Also included: a prominent role on the FSP Blue Chip 7v7 team. The contact reported by J425 is just one of numerous instances recounted to the media by area players.
The WIAA report highlights multiple direct instances reported by parents, coaches and athletes. You can download your own copy of the 47-page investigatory report at the end of this article.
Bethel AD Presented Roosevelt with Plea to Stop Calling Students During School Day, List of Complaints from Area Coaches in Spring of 2024. This Information Wasn’t Welcomed or Acted Upon.
And then there’s the letter from Bethel Athletic Director Tyson Lowry, a damning compilation of evidence that was indisputably provided to Roosevelt Athletic Director Danny Thompson some six months before the football season in question, well before any hints of the scandal had gone public.
In the spring of 2024, Tyson Lowry, the athletic director at Bethel School District, sent Thompson, Roosevelt’s athletic director, a list of reports from coaches in his district citing evidence of recruiting.
Roosevelt football staff, Lowry wrote, were luring Bethel players and parents with the promise of college athletic scholarships, “telling players and parents they should have multiple offers right now and if they come to Roosevelt they will get those offers,” Lowry said.
Roosevelt football staff reportedly called students during school hours to entice them to transfer to the school, Lowry told Thompson, “telling kids to claim homeless and they will be fine.”
Thompson denied the accusations in his email response.
“It is very disappointing to be accused of illegal recruiting when Roosevelt can only service students who are placed through the enrollment process of Seattle Public Schools,” Thompson wrote.
“I would like this email to serve as Roosevelt High School’s first attempt to ask you to politely stop spreading false rumors about Roosevelt High School and our Sports Programs.”
The WIAA investigation substantiated Lowry’s complaint, finding that at least four Bethel players were recruited to Roosevelt ahead of the 2024 season.
And in each case, the players were instructed to represent themselves as homeless during registration, just as Lowry said in the email from the spring of 2024.
Obviously, this was the moment at which action could’ve and even should’ve rectified the situation before the worst of it occurred.
Instead of acting in response to a colleague’s private, good faith effort…Thompson rejected the right answer. One does not require any specialized training to know how to respond to a colleague approaching you not only with his own first-hand instances of Roosevelt recruiting his students, but also with an itemized list of complaints from numerous area coaches.
Ed. Note: So who is the benevolent actor here? Is it Bethel AD Lowry and the list of area coaches, whose names we do not know because even in the midst of having their own players stripped from their team by unscrupulous actors, they still chose to keep the matter out of public view, and in doing so, provide Roosevelt with an opportunity to right the ship?
Or do you believe the AD found culpable for level 3 recruiting violations, for manufacturing an end-to-end registration system that coached the students on applying for homeless status, for pushing back against well-meaning employee inquiries, for running implausibly thin internal investigations into the unprecedented levels of homeless football players arriving en masse, probes som obviously designed to justify their actions that its almost laughable.
In order to believe Adams’ protestations, one would have to believe all of the players are lying, and that Bethel AD fabricated a letter containing complaints and evidence from a list of area coaches, and that Lowry compiled the subterfuge in the Spring of 2024, months before the matter publicly surfaced.
Obviously, there is no reason to believe that a fellow athletic director and numerous area coaches decided to manufacture a detailed conspiracy against a fellow coach months before any violations had occurred. -KTH
WIAA Board Deliberates on Appeals
Before the board retired to consider the matter, their independent fact finder Marilee Scarborough added that the public records request she filed with SPS has yet to be received. Further, the board was provided documents indicating that The Kennel was initially developed for football players only.
After considering the matter, the board returned for a public vote. One member with Seattle School District ties recused themselves.
Initially, motions to drop the penalties against the Roosevelt leaders failed.
A blanket motion to rescind the fines assessed to Seattle Public Schools by board members Blakney and Kredit was voted down.
Next, Blakney and Kredit moved to change the violation from Level 3 to Level 2 and reduce the fine assessed to Seattle Schools AD Pat McCarthy to $1500.
The motion failed.
Board members Waterman and Blakney then tried a different tact, moving a proposal that rescinded fines levied against Roosevelt AD Danny Thompson, but also required him to undergo WIAA-proctored training regarding the handbook rules in question, and that he serve on two eligibility committee meetings. Upon fulfilling these requirements, Thompson’s three year probation could be waived upon completion.
The motion passed, after which the board moved through three identical motions for Adams, Patu and Skene.
Unanswered Questions Remain
Why the board was in such a rush to reduce the penalties of coaches who failed to take any personal responsibility for the violations they’d committed, and who – by rejecting the findings of the investigation – in effect were branding all of the students, parents, coaches and media who’d substantiated complaints against them liars.
At the end of the day, high school football isn’t that important. But honesty is important. Leadership is important. Modeling correct behavior is important.
By allowing the coaches and athletic director at the center of this scandal to both accept the core findings of the report while maintaining lack of guilt and dodging any personal financial responsibility, the board is simply underlining the theme present throughout the entire matter: the kids are products to be manipulated at the pleasure of the adults in leadership positions. Should any problems occur, the adults will of course avoid consequences, and the price will be paid by those they claim to serve.
The Roosevelt Scandal Reviewed in the Context of the Patu Family’s Parallel Issues at Garfield High School
Viewed against a backdrop of incessant scandal and an ongoing lack of responsibility at Seattle Schools, including the October 2024 arrest on Federal drug charges of the woman whose non-profit was hired at nearly $200k per year to replace the Seattle Police school resource officers pulled from Garfield high school after 2020.
Over at Garfield, Assistant Coach Saul Patu’s sister was arrested by Federal agentsjust one day after The Stranger reported that Seattle Schools was paying her almost $200K per year as a substitute for the duly sworn Seattle Police officers they’d removed from campus as part of the defund the police movement following 2020. The job Seattle Schools tasked her with: promoting non-violence and protecting students.
The charges federal agents arrested her and five other family members she lived with on: running a multistate fentanyl ring recently responsible for the death of four Lummi nation members. Patu’s sister was charged with laundering drug money through her non-violence charity and Patu’s nephew was charged with running the multi-state ring. From the KUOW report:
Saul Patu, the defensive coordinator for the Roughriders and a onetime candidate for Seattle City Council, is the son of longtime former Seattle School Board Member Betty Patu. The (Roosevelt recruiting scandal) was the second recent school district scandal for their family; the school district cut ties last year with the violence prevention program his sister Marty Jackson ran in several Seattle schools after she and several family members were indicted on federal drug trafficking charges.
So in summary, everything is upside down in Seattle. Adults lie to students and promise impermissible benefits that they don’t actually deliver on (none of the 18 received college scholarships), the students absorb the losses and the penalties after being tricked into non-sensical mid-year moves to a program controlled by their 7v7 coaches.
The adults reap the benefits: $80,000 annual cash disbursals for the wonderful service of taking a public resource and turning it into a Kennel for housing athletes while other kids go to school. And in case you think this corruption is a one off, the sister of the guy running the Kennel scam is getting $200k per year as a sick substitute for police – tasked with protecting Garfield students – all the while she uses this same non profit to launder the drug proceeds of the multistate lethal fentanyl ring she’s currently awaiting trial for.3
When the results of the investigation were made public last June, Seattle Schools quickly placed Roosevelt principal Tami Brewer on leave. Adams, Patu and company completely avoided any public explanation of their actions, they just disappeared. Athletic directors Thompson and McCarthy deflected, denied and made counter accusations.
In fact, the first time any of these adult leaders surfaced at all was in an attempt to make sure they wouldn’t have to pay the paltry $3500 fines levied against them for their Level 3 WIAA violations.
Those involved had been completely absent during the investigation. Despite agreeing to the scope and powers of the investigator prior to the fact-finding mission, those responsible for the rule breaking made themselves scarce when explanations and responsibility came due. In fact, McCarthy and Thompson stonewalled the investigation for months on end, refusing to turn over the key required documents and allowing personnel to delay or avoid interviews for almost five months.
Ultimately, the investigator was forced to complete her report without the requested materials and without the assistance promised by Seattle. Still, she found more than enough evidence to justify the Level 3 penalties against the major players involved, writing
“Roosevelt administrators and coaches are responsible for preventing violations, adhering to processes, and intervening to ensure compliance with WAA rules. If violations occur, their roles require action to stop violations from continuing. Roosevelt did not acknowledge violation of rules in response to multiple allegations of inappropriate recruiting of football players that occurred prior to initiation of this fact-finding. At no point in the fact-finding did anyone from Roosevelt or Seattle acknowledge a violation of WAA rules or Seattle’s policies and procedure.”
J425 has reached out directly to Assistant Superintendent Ted Howard, requesting an interview.
We’ll let you know what he says. See below to download a copy of the WIAA Fact Finder report.