Sign The Petition Now and Help!

Dear WIAA, OSAA and the Department of Education;

High School Football is one of the most revered and time honored sports in the world. While not perfect the game is one of the few things many young people have to look up to and forward to. Millions of fans, parents, coaches, students and student-athletes gather on Fridays to celebrate the game and life itself.

In this new era of social media and instant access to our kids new opportunities have arisen for unscrupulous people to gain the confidence of our student athletes without the families or school staff knowing about it. Their intentions are to profit monetarily, to sway the outcome of recruiting efforts to certain colleges and universities, and in some cases much much worse.

To maintain the sanctity of High School Football I am hereby affiliating with the Northwest Football Alliance to support them in the cause to bring accountability and checks and balances to the world we now live in.

I support them in their efforts as follows:

#1: We are calling for background checks of anyone wanting to charge kids and families a fee for athletic recruiting services in the Pacific Northwest and we demand to have all their staff cleared of any criminal charges including drugs, fraud, or theft and of course all felonies PRIOR to them doing work in the Pacific Northwest.

#2: We will seek rules and laws to require these same services to post a performance bond and get an annual approval and or License from the respective State Governments and the OSAA and WIAA or Board and Department of Higher Education to do that sort of work. It is in fact a form of Agency and requires the Agent to have a Fiduciary obligation to the client (student athlete) and there fore should be governed like all other forms of Agency (insurance, law, stocks and securities, CPA, etc.) by an appropriate body.

#3: We will seek rules and regulations to require that all such agents annually fully disclose what they charge and require them to advertise those rates online. Right now many top kids are being extended FREE camp entrances and services while those not as gifted pay. To avoid discrimination based on race, creed, ability, political or socio-economic status etc. these rates must be set and approved before the agency offering recruiting services can do business here in the Pacific Northwest.

#4: All recruiting agents and agencies should be bound to sign a code of ethics that binds their behavior in a way that is ethical; if that is at all possible.

#5: Regarding any and all media from established print media to new media bloggers we will seek to limit access to the locker rooms and fields at public schools to only those members of the Media who are legitimate print media with very long standing relationships with our schools or who have first signed disclosure agreements and a code of ethical behavior. These are minors that we are allowing them access too. While we can not monitor nor control what happens outside the purview of the public eye we can sure work for strong controls and a High bar on who and how they get to them on publicly funded schools. If members of the Media are being paid a fee or extended other benefits for accessing minors and influencing their decisions in any way then this needs to be disclosed and stopped at all costs.

#6: All Members of the Media who want access to student athletes will need to pass a criminal background test in the same manner that our coaching staffs are required to do. If they fail to meet the criteria they will be banned and not allowed access to media passes nor to any public facilities in regards to special access to sidelines or locker rooms.

#7: PRIVATELY Run 7 on 7 Football leagues as well as combines and camps are very often using public facilities and making a lot of money off our athletes and their families and yet rarely have these groups had their background cleared or been looked at for insurance and safety protocols. These events can prove very divisive to school teams and instill a sense of “Me” over “We”. We are looking into this phenomenon and asking the tough questions. How much are they renting our public facilities for and at what cost, who is providing insurance and what amounts are they covering, are they providing safety provisions and athletic trainers consistent with accepted standards, and who is checking into the background of such entities and individuals?

These are some of the goals and objectives of the Northwest Football Alliance and I whole-heartedly support them. These are the most pressing topics at this time. Public schools, coaching staff, and others in traditional High School Football have worked under such guidelines and constraints for many years now.

It is time that others wanting a chair or two at the High School Football Family Table do so as well.

Consider this my support for these goals and objectives of this group.

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