Family of quarterback injured in 2023 Fish Bowl sues school district, coach, player
A federal lawsuit was filed Oct. 28 against the Peninsula School District on behalf of a student athlete who was injured at last year’s “Fish Bowl” football game between Gig Harbor and Peninsula high schools, court records show.
Gig Harbor Tides quarterback Koi Calhoun was hospitalized for a concussion, fractured jaw and displaced tooth shoved up into his jaw after a Peninsula player charged and slammed him into the ground after a play in the Sept. 15, 2023 game, The News Tribune reported.
The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Tacoma alleges that the “assault was the result of a policy, practice, and custom to incite violence and target opponent quarterbacks that the Peninsula High School and its coach, Ross Filkins, created, enforced, supported, and ratified.”
Calhoun’s legal guardian and mother, who saw the assault, is bringing the lawsuit on his behalf, according to the complaint.
The list of defendants includes the Peninsula School District, Filkins and the Peninsula player, whom the complaint identifies as an adult. It also includes 15 others not identified by name but described as “school district employees, as yet undetermined, who engaged in acts and omissions of a deliberately indifferent nature, or who may have joined Defendant Filkins in inciting violence, which proximately resulted in the deprivation of the civil rights of” Calhoun.
Asked for comment Oct. 30, Peninsula School District spokesperson Danielle Chastaine told The News Tribune via phone that the district does not comment on open litigation.
Filkins did not immediately respond to The News Tribune’s request for comment Oct. 30.
Records reviewed by The News Tribune following the game showed the district struggled to find enough security officers to help with crowd control prior to the heated game, which draws thousands of fans each year. The incident led to flared tensions on and offline in the aftermath, and the district initiated its own internal investigation soon after the game that put five Gig Harbor assistant coaches on temporary leave.
Kevin Hastings, one of the attorneys representing Calhoun and his mother from law firm Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala, emphasized that Calhoun’s injuries were serious in a phone call to The News Tribune Oct. 30.
“This wasn’t a situation of a regular hit,” Hastings said. “This was a very violent after-play hit.”
According to Hastings, Calhoun couldn’t feel his legs for several hours, amounting to a partial paralysis for a time. With what is now known about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain damage condition that can result from repeated blows to the head during contact sports like football, the plaintiffs want to ensure that local football coaches aren’t encouraging, suggesting or advising their players to go out onto the field and hurt other players, Hastings said.
“It’s the cavalier attitude toward safety of children in the football game that leads parents to (pull) them from the sport, that leads parents to be concerned about the safety of their kids on the field,” he told The News Tribune.
The complaint alleges that the district didn’t adequately prepare for the safety logistics of the game, and that the Peninsula High School football coaching staff under coach Filkins encouraged their players to engage in violent and dangerous behavior to injure opposing players.
It also alleges that “there has been a long standing history and pattern of impermissible game conduct” by Peninsula players aimed at injuring Gig Harbor football players, specifically the quarterbacks, at the Fish Bowl game.
Hastings said one of the most compelling pieces of evidence is a post Filkins allegedly made on social media under the handle @PenHSathletes the day after the game, which showed a picture of the field from ground level and the caption, “I’ve never been more Peninsula Proud.” The complaint alleges that this photo gave the vantage point that Calhoun would have had while injured and lying on the field, and was taken at the same spot.
“That is exactly the type of conduct that we’re talking about,” Hastings said. “It doesn’t have to be overt, you know: ‘Go out there and take him down and break a bone.’ There are implied suggestions that are equally as powerful.”
This story was originally published October 31, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
