Sports - High Schools

POSTED: Friday, Nov. 28, 2008

PREP FOOTBALL: Bellevue team's bus crashes on I-5

A freeway bus accident forced the Class 3A football state semifinal game between Capital High and Bellevue High on Friday, Nov. 28, to be rescheduled.

A charter bus carrying 38 members of the top-ranked Bellevue football team to the Tacoma Dome flipped on Interstate 5 near Des Moines. Eight people were injured, the Washington State Patrol said.

Washington State Patrol trooper Cliff Pratt said seven players and one person from a car received minor injuries and were taken to three hospitals. The worst injury was a minor concussion to one player, he said.

The semifinal game will now be played at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 1, at Harry E. Lang Stadium in Lakewood. Tickets pur-chased for Friday’s game will be honored on Monday.

The accident occurred at 10:56 a.m. when an unidentified vehicle lost a ladder on the freeway near Des Moines, caus-ing several vehicles to swerve out of the way, Pratt said. A semi-truck and two passenger vehicles were also involved in the accident.

The bus blocked the two right lanes of southbound I-5 at South 216th Street. Pratt said players and coaches were able to evacuate the overturned bus through emergency exits and windows.

Among those in the bus was Wolverines coach Butch Goncharoff.

“I talked to Butch and he is OK,” said Mike Colbrese, executive director of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. “Obviously, he is pretty shaken.”

Bellevue assistant football coach Pat Jones told Seattle radio station KOMO 1000-AM that the bus hit the semi-truck. The impact sent the bus up onto a hillside next to the freeway, where it overturned.

“It was real surreal,” Jones told KOMO Radio. “The kids kind of kept their cool. Everybody looks like they’re going to be OK.”

Another bus carrying Bellevue junior varsity and freshman teams and some assistant coaches did arrive at the Tacoma Dome. At the Dome, Capital coach J.D. Johnson said his team’s thoughts were with Bellevue.

“It’s still just a game,” he said. “I hope everybody is healthy. This is just a game and that’s what is important.”

Johnson called his team together on a few occasions in an effort to keep the team focused.

The Capital players said they heard about the accident shortly after it happened via text messages.

“We didn’t really know what was going on,” senior running back Riley Wall said. “Our team feels horrible about what happened.”

After spending a week building toward Friday, the Cougars will now have to wait to play their semifinal game.

“Mentally, it will be tougher,” junior quarterback Kellen Camus said. “We just have to go home and get ready to prac-tice.”

In an effort to give the winner of the Bellevue-Capital game as much time as possible to prepare for the state title game, the 3A final swapped slots with the 4A game. Now, the 4A championship will be played at 7:30 p.m. next Friday and the 3A game is at 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6. Both games will be at the Tacoma Dome.