A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against Peninsula School District, former coach Ross Filkins and a Peninsula player over a brutal 2023 Fish Bowl hit that left Gig Harbor quarterback Koi Calhoun with a concussion, a broken jaw and a displaced tooth. U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle ruled on August 28 that the late hit did not exceed the normal risks inherent to tackle football, ending a legal fight that stretched nearly three years after the crosstown rivalry game descended into chaos on the sideline.
Calhoun's mother filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, alleging her son's injuries resulted from a policy, practice and custom to incite violence and target opposing quarterbacks, according to The News Tribune. Settle found that high school football is inherently a violent collision sport where personal fouls and injuries occur routinely even under proper coaching, and he concluded the Peninsula player's hit on Calhoun did not exceed football's normal risks, as reported by Key Peninsula News.
What Happened on the Field
The injury occurred during the September 15, 2023 Fish Bowl at Roy Anderson Field in Purdy, when a Peninsula player charged and slammed Calhoun into the ground, drawing a personal foul penalty. In legal filings, Calhoun alleged that the Peninsula player directed a derogatory comment at him immediately before the hit, an allegation the player did not dispute during court proceedings, the outlet's report notes. A review by Victor C. Winnek found no evidence that the Peninsula player intended to injure Calhoun, and no extraordinary or unusual contact or conduct in the play — rejecting descriptions of the contact as a tomahawk chop, punching or helmet-leading behavior, and finding it did not involve a blindside ambush, a weaponized object, a strike after the whistle or conduct disconnected from football.
Court filings also showed that Gig Harbor's head coach had raised concerns about Peninsula players targeting quarterbacks following the 2022 Fish Bowl, and that a Gig Harbor parent reiterated similar concerns to district officials the day before the 2023 game, per the same account. The district and Filkins argued in their motion that the coach and district took reasonable measures consistent with standard high school football practices, and that there was no evidence they created a particularized danger directed at Calhoun beyond football's inherent risks. They also argued there was no evidence that crowd size or an alleged lack of law enforcement caused Calhoun's injuries, and that the district does not have a policy or practice of encouraging dirty play.
Chaos on the Sideline Delayed Treatment
Paramedics took roughly half an hour to get Calhoun onto a stretcher, into an ambulance and transported to Tacoma General Hospital, according to The News Tribune's reporting. A crowd surrounding the track hindered the ambulance from reaching him. Public records obtained from Peninsula School District showed administrators interviewed roughly 50 people during an internal investigation into the game, with assistant coaches describing the sideline environment during the injury delay as a near-“riot atmosphere,” with staff “seconds away from a fight,” according to Gig Harbor Now.
Part of that crowd crush traced back to a structural failure hours earlier: school officials were forced to dismantle and remove temporary bleachers at Roy Anderson Field more than an hour before kickoff after the structures began buckling under the weight of Gig Harbor student fans, Key Peninsula News reported at the time. That pushed student spectators onto the track surrounding the field, which later impeded emergency vehicle access when Calhoun went down. Complicating the response further, the Gig Harbor Fire & Medic One crew stationed at the field was actively responding to a separate, non-football medical call elsewhere on stadium grounds when Calhoun was injured, contributing to the transport delay, Gig Harbor Now's investigation found.
District Discipline and Fallout
Following an internal investigation, the district disciplined several Gig Harbor coaches and restricted them from coaching the next game against Capital High School, though the district allowed the disciplined coaches to return the following week. The district sent letters of reprimand to four coaches, including Peninsula's Filkins and Gig Harbor's Darrin Reeves. Filkins, who completed a 30-year football coaching career at Peninsula in 2024 and now serves as the school's athletic director, reviewed game video with his staff and emphasized player safety and appropriate conduct; he has said he did not instruct, encourage or condone targeting opposing players or dangerous play. Filkins declined to comment publicly on the lawsuit's dismissal, per The News Tribune.
Filkins previously posted a picture of the field with the caption “I've never been more Peninsula proud,” saying he was proud of his team's composure after Calhoun's injury and the ensuing conduct of Gig Harbor coaches. Michael Farmer said football comes with certain risks and that students and staff do not have to go through trial, adding that the district remains sorry a player was injured and is thankful the case was dismissed, according to the newspaper's report.
A Rivalry Permanently Relocated
The Fish Bowl rivalry between Gig Harbor High School and Peninsula High School dates back to 1979, when Gig Harbor High first opened. Gig Harbor won the 2023 game 21-20 despite the chaos, with tight end Benji Park entering at quarterback trailing 14-0 and throwing for 208 yards and two second-half touchdowns to complete the comeback, Key Peninsula News reported. Following Gig Harbor's win in 2024, the all-time crosstown series stood deadlocked at 23 wins apiece.
District administrators permanently moved the Fish Bowl to Mount Tahoma Stadium in Tacoma beginning in 2024 because Roy Anderson Field held under 2,000 spectators and lacked grandstand separation, while the 5,000-seat Tacoma facility allows complete physical separation of opposing fanbases and parking lots, per Gig Harbor Now. Officials also rescheduled the rivalry game to Saturdays instead of Friday nights and enacted strict new spectator rules for the relocated games, including bans on signs and full face paint, online-only ticket sales, and enforced separate parking zones. This year's Fish Bowl is scheduled to run from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on September 19 at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma.
Parties in the lawsuit can still appeal Settle's ruling to a U.S. Court of Appeals, though no appeal had been reported at the time of the dismissal.
