Seattle's Roosevelt High School sanctioned for illicit recruiting of football players

This is a developing story and will be updated.

District staff, coaches, and students at Seattle’s Roosevelt High School face wide-ranging sanctions after the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) found that the football program illicitly recruited students. The penalties include fines, suspensions and forfeiture of past games.

A months-long investigation by an independent factfinder for the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) came after coaches at districts across the region reported that Roosevelt football coaches were trying to lure students to transfer to their school with the promise that it would help them get noticed by college football recruiters.

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The WIAA has not announced publicly how many players were determined to have been recruited, but Roosevelt’s varsity team last fall included about 20 new players who online rosters show had played the previous year for other teams or school districts across the state. Nearly all were highly-ranked football players, including at least four students from Spanaway and three from Federal Way schools.

Several new Roosevelt players had previously appeared on football rosters in California, Hawaii, and Arizona.

The WIAA launched the probe after an initial investigation by Roosevelt Principal Tami Brewer and Athletic Director Danny Thompson determined that there was no evidence of recruiting.

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The WIAA announced it will bar head Roosevelt varsity football coach Sam Adams and assistant coach Saul Patu from coaching at WIAA member schools for one year, and levy $2,500 fines against those it found culpable, including Brewer, Thompson, Adams, Patu, assistant football coach Dominique Skeen, and Pat McCarthy, executive director of athletics for Seattle Public Schools.

The WIAA said it will also issue a $2,500 fine against the district’s athletic department. None of the sanctioned staff responded to interview requests.

The WIAA ordered that the Roughriders forfeit all football games that included ineligible players in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years, and barred the football team from postseason play next school year. All Roosevelt players deemed to have lied to gain eligibility will be benched from interscholastic play for one year.

Adams and Patu will not be allowed to coach at WIAA member schools next school year. The WIAA put the athletic departments of both Seattle Public Schools and Roosevelt High on three-year probation and required WIAA District 2 approval of all athletes who join the school’s teams as transfer students.

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Seattle Public Schools spokesperson Sophia Charchuk did not respond to interview requests, but said in an emailed statement: “The district takes these findings seriously and is committed to upholding the integrity of our athletic programs. SPS has already strengthened its student residency and school assignment verification processes, and is reviewing the WIAA’s report to determine next steps.”

Under WIAA rules, students who transfer from one high school to another are typically ineligible for sports for one school year to prevent players from seeking out the highest-ranking teams — or the teams recruiting them.

Internal Seattle School District emails show that at least some of Roosevelt’s new football players who came to the school last fall enrolled as homeless students, an exception to the rule that allows transfer students to play sports in the first year at their new schools.

Athletic staff from schools across the state reported recruiting rumors and allegations last year to officials at Roosevelt, the Seattle School District and WIAA.

In spring 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 were allegedly 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."

Roosevelt has not traditionally been a strong football contender, but the team made it to the state playoffs this year for the first time in a decade, finishing second in the Metro League behind football powerhouse Bellevue High School.

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Head Roosevelt football coach Sam Adams, who played 14 years in the NFL including as a defensive tackle for the Seattle Seahawks, has faced past charges of unfair play. In 2017, Adams’ company, Hollystone Holdings, Inc., pleaded guilty to charges of criminal wage theft for withholding pay from former employees of West Seattle Athletic Club, one of half a dozen gyms he owned in Washington and Oregon.

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. This 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.

Seattle Public Schools spokesperson Sophia Charchuk said the district is awaiting formal sanction letters from WIAA before commenting further on the recruiting findings.