OT- Bellevue (WA) High School FB coach in hot water

Submitted by BornInA2 on

When you win the state championship 11 times in 14 years, only an idiot would believe there isn't something fishy going on, but even after reading reports for the last year, I'm surprised by the scope of this, especially what appears to be outright denial and obstruction by school district staff, including the superintendent.

Does anyone know if these high schools have to license the name and/or winged helmets?

http://www.seattletimes.com/sports/high-school/bellevue-football-report…

Wolverine Devotee

April 26th, 2016 at 8:52 PM ^

Stephen Schilling played there.

Also, the rule is that the wings have to have a different shape than Michigan's helmet. 

Logos have to be ok'd by schools. The high school I went to got sued by Miami for using the U without permission. Cost the school a lot of money to remove all the logos which was required.

borninAnnArbor

April 26th, 2016 at 9:11 PM ^

We played against a team in high school in Ohio who wore the winged helmets, though in the school's red and blue colors. They rarely lost and always went deep in the state playoffs. Then the school officials bowed to pressure to not wear uniforms associated with Michigan. They have sucked ever since.

Evil Empire

April 27th, 2016 at 10:07 AM ^

The West Geauga Wolverines (Chesterland, OH) have not given up on the helmet design, nickname, or fight song and they remain a decent program.  They are officially blue, red, and white but the football uniforms have trended in a Michigan-PSU hybrid direction.

xtramelanin

April 26th, 2016 at 11:07 PM ^

they are perfect just as they are.  we can go white/maize pants on the road, maybe wear blue pants at home once every, say 35 home games, but otherwise keep 'em just like they are.  

Gameboy

April 26th, 2016 at 11:36 PM ^

I want to note that this is the richest school district in the entire Northwest. This school district encompasses ultra-rich neighborhoods like Medina, which is home to Bill Gates. There is a lot of people with enough money to not even think twice about throwing tens of thousands of dollars to the football program. The booster program is pretty scary.

However, it is great for raising kids as school bonds never fail to pass. Just spent $250 million to rebuild one of the high schools and it is fantastic.

youn2948

April 27th, 2016 at 9:31 AM ^

You'll still have those on the dole that need their free babysitting.  So sad that's their view on school as their children need it the most to get out of a bad situation.

Seriously though, that would be inequality unless we start giving away computers+internet and would eliminate many of the fixed costs of education  Would also raise a generation even more socially awkward than mine, and I was raised by the internet.

sum1valiant

April 27th, 2016 at 10:56 AM ^

I dont think this is as outrageous as you might think. My wife teaches in Orange County Public School system (Orlando, Fl), which is by no means a rich area. Every one of her students receive a MacBook Air that they must return at the end of the school year.

a different Jason

April 27th, 2016 at 11:51 AM ^

My daughter's Jr high starting in 7th grade gets a laptop every year that they have to return. This will be such a cost savings that it will happen in some places. I agree with the idea that education is self perpetuating, think how many college students, professors, etc that change would affect. However, we are spending billions on trying to teach graphing lines and diagramming sentences to young people who absolutely don't care.

UofM Die Hard …

April 27th, 2016 at 12:55 AM ^

I went to high school at Eastlake in sammamish, WA and we all knew something was up with them getting all these kids to just run through the 3A division with ease. There are some pissed off rich people about these investigations

I'm still waiting on Skyline to get some dirt too, they just restock every year as well.

EGD

April 26th, 2016 at 9:05 PM ^

"One student’s address was at a Mail Plus store inside a Bellevue mall; at another address provided, people who lived there said the student athlete had never lived there. In one case, the investigators uncovered a falsified lease agreement used to establish residence in the district."

Dirtbags.

rainingmaize

April 26th, 2016 at 9:19 PM ^

I guarantee you, Michigan has the winged helmets trademarked in addition to their other logos and verbiage, which includes the name Michigan. While I don't see a reason to enforce it, it is well within Michigan's right to prohibit use of their images, and require high schools to apply to use them.

SchrodingersCat

April 26th, 2016 at 10:29 PM ^

If you don't enforce it  you lose it! 

 

" A company that tolerates misuse of its marks by the public and/or fails to enforce quality control standards in any licensing of the mark may lose its trademark rights, and, therefore, one of its most valuable weapons in the war for market share."

 

Source: http://entrepreneurship.org/resource-center/protecting-trademarks-iii-e…

mgoblue0970

April 27th, 2016 at 10:29 AM ^

How did we take it from them when it was brought to Michigan by the guy who created it? 

It's not like Michigan saw it and copied/stole it. 

IP aside, when I change jobs, if I use any skillset created at my previous employer at my next position, am I taking that too?

mgoblue0970

April 27th, 2016 at 5:45 PM ^

It's fairly common... either Michigan isn't enforcing its license or they have a lot of agreements. 

This one always cracks me up:

http://www.helsinkiwolverines.com/

There are 12 other NCAA programs which use the winged helmet and a subset of those also use a similar color scheme.

IIRC, Hartland HS uses the the Michigan scheme.

This has been a point of contention from HS all the way up to the NFL... (I recall an article about GB objecting to UGA's logo recently).  But high schools are allowed to use NFL logos if they are not altered.

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20101130/news/712019831/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/21/AR2010102106526.html

 

Perkis-Size Me

April 26th, 2016 at 9:24 PM ^

This sounds like something that would happen deep in the heart of Texas, or at some powerhouse program in Florida. Not in Washington State. I didn't think enough people out there really cared about any team other than the Seahawks and maybe UW.

Truly amazing the lengths that people will go to, how many rules they'll break, the palms they grease, just to keep winning. The sad part is that this is what he'll be remembered for from now on. Not those 11 titles.




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