Seattle's Roosevelt HS finally made the football playoffs, but did they recruit players to get there?

Roosevelt High School in Seattle is under investigation by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association for alleged football recruiting violations as the team heads to state playoffs for the first time in a decade.

About 20 Roosevelt varsity football players transferred this fall from other teams or school districts, online rosters show. Nearly all are highly-ranked players who played football last year across the Puget Sound region, including at least four from Spanaway and three from Federal Way schools.

Several new Roosevelt players were listed last year on high school football rosters in California, Hawaii, and Arizona.

WIAA bars schools from recruiting students for athletic reasons. Following complaints from other member schools, the WIAA executive board approved hiring an outside fact-finder “to delve deeply into the allegations of recruiting by the Roosevelt High School football program,” said Mick Hoffman, the agency’s executive director, in a statement.

“It is important to note that Roosevelt High School proactively conducted an investigation into the recruiting allegations involving the 2024 football program, which was reviewed and approved by the Metro League,” the 18-high school football conference that includes Seattle, said Sophia Charchuk, Seattle Public Schools spokesperson, by email. “The investigation found no rule violations.”

Roosevelt High School Principal Tami Brewer did not respond to a request for comment.

Recruiting is considered a serious violation by WIAA, with penalties that include forfeiting games that involved illegally recruited players. Players can be benched for a year. School staff, and the school itself, also face fines and possible suspension from athletics. The agency is aiming to present its investigative findings to its executive board by mid-March, said Sean Bessette, WIAA spokesperson.

Roosevelt head football coach Sam Adams did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the recruiting allegations.

But the former Seattle Seahawks' defensive tackle, who played for 14 years in the NFL, has previously run afoul of state law. 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.

Roosevelt enters the first round of the state 3A football playoffs on Saturday against Federal Way High School in a game at Memorial Field in Seattle. Roosevelt, currently 6-2 and seeded fifth in the league, has not made it to the playoffs since 2014, when the team was eliminated in game one.