The Bellevue High School football booster club filed a complaint in King County Superior Court Monday seeking to nullify the “arbitary, capricious” sanctions against them.

Parents of two incoming players joined the Bellevue Wolverines Football Club in the complaint against the WIAA, KingCo Conference, Sea-King District 2 and the Bellevue School District filed on Aug. 22. In it, they argued that the sanctions would harm students and the club, and that WIAA investigators did not follow the procedures for a fact-finding investigation laid out in the WIAA Handbook.

“We’re fighting to restore justice for our Bellevue High School football program,” said Tami Hansen, one of the complainants whose son will be a sophomore at Bellevue High School this fall. “We were unfairly targeted from the beginning, with an original investigation that was biased and fraught with error, leading to sanctions for activities that, frankly, are par for the course across other districts.”

Following the investigation report issued in April, KingCo and Sea-King District 2 passed down sanctions. After two appeals by the Bellevue School District, the team was put on two years probation and the Wolverines Football Club was prohibited from making any donations to the team for four years.

The lawsuit addresses several conclusions made during the WIAA investigation earlier this year that they believe are incorrect. Among them are that money the booster clubs donated to the Academic Institute, payments to Coach Butch Goncharoff and the week-long camp players attended every July violated WIAA rules.

“Whether due to a misunderstanding with BSD about the scope of the investigation or because persons within WIAA had long been jealous of Mr. Goncharoff’s success and desired to bring down the BHS football program, WIAA took the request from BSD as carte blanche to conduct an open-ended investigation into the BHS football program,” the lawsuit reads.

They maintain that donations to the Academic Institute were made without any strings attached. Many other KingCo member schools, they argue, interpret WIAA rules to allow booster clubs to compensate high school coaches for work outside of the coach’s District-mandated duties.

The filing comes a week after it was revealed that the new booster club will be raising funds for the team at a season kick-off event on Aug. 27. Though the sanctions prohibit them from giving money to the team, the club maintains that they are allowed to fundraise and the funds will eventually go to the team in the event FAQ.

The school district announced earlier this month that they will not be appealing a third time.