New Garfield football coach on leave after pulling team from field

With the first days of the new school year here, Garfield High School is in the news — but it’s not for successfully deploying a small army of substitute teachers to make sure last year’s overcrowding issues didn’t mar the start of the school year. Instead, Garfield’s new high school football coach is being talked about on sports pages around the country:

Garfield coach cites safety issue after forfeiting football game
Garfield High School’s football season opener at Lake Washington of Kirkland on Friday ended in a forfeit after the Bulldogs’ first-year coach, Kelvin Goliday, was ejected and his team refused to return to the field.


Less than two minutes into the third quarter, after a Garfield fumble was recovered by Lake Washington with the Bulldogs trailing 14-0, Goliday called a timeout to talk to the officials.

“In my opinion the whistles were slow,” Goliday said. “I called a timeout early in the third quarter to talk to the ref about maybe getting quicker whistles so that no one gets hurt. This was both sides of the ball. At the time the fumble occurred, I felt the whistle should have blown long before that.”

Goliday was hired from a San Diego-area high school last spring to help bring “a new start” to Bulldog football.

He has been placed on administrative leave while the school district looks into the issue.

The Bulldogs take on Sammamish Friday night at Memorial Stadium. More information is at http://www.garfieldfootball.com/

0 thoughts on “New Garfield football coach on leave after pulling team from field

  1. You would have had to have been at the game to understand why Garfields coach protested the game, but for those of you who werent, and would like to make this thing a big deal Garfield like the few other schools with a population of minorities over the years have been cheated out of many games in,both football, and basketball for years when crossing over to the EAST SIDE. This is nothing new. I played hoops for FHS in the 90’s and experienced the same BS, and for the school, and district to want to discipline the coach, or even terminate him for taking a stand is teaching the kids a horrible lesson. This coach walked into a mess taking over last years CROOKED coach, and deserves a chance, and the principle been screwing up for years, and to now want to give the coach an early exit is unfair, and the principal is the one that needs investigating.

  2. Just let the kids play football I played youth football in the cd but follow skyline high school were my father in law coaches but always follow the bulldogs its just a Damn shame how this program has fallen to this level and I hope the kids just don’t give up football is the best thing it the world and it helps you in your everyday life