Coaching Staff Quits After Head Coach Suspended over "Player Participation" Concerns of Small Group of Parents

A top program with a famous, young alumnus head coach took the seemingly drastic step of a pubic removal & investigation Friday. Insiders say it's because parents complained about player participation

Peyton Pelluer, pictured with his mom, Kim. Pelluer is currently suspended from his role as head football coach at Skyline High School, pending the results of an unspecified investigation. The entire Skyline football staff quit yesterday in support of Pelluer, creating a full-fledged crisis on the Plateau.

“It’s pretty surreal, and it’s only going to get more surreal.”

- Peyton Pelluer, on becoming the head coach at Skyline in 2024.

---

“Coach Pelluer has assembled a strong coaching staff-many of them former Skyline players-who understand our program, school, and community at the deepest level.”

- Skyline High School Principal Keith Hennig, September, 2025.

---

“We cannot in good faith continue under leadership conditions that compromise our integrity and values…our loyalty lies first and foremost with the man who represents the best of what Skyline has always been.”

- Skyline Football Assistant Coaches, group statement published October 20, 2025.

UPDATE: According to assistant coach Gino Simone late Monday night, the Issaquah School District will make a decision on the fate of suspended coach Peyton Pelleur Tuesday afternoon. The assistant coaches resigned en masse Monday and pledged not to return until Pelluer was reinstated. Simone said the district told the coaches a decision would be made by 1:00 pm Tuesday. The full Monday night update can be found at the bottom of this story, along with the suspension letter sent out Friday and the assistant coaches’ resignation letter and associated list of requests published today. - KTH 11:58 pm Monday

---

SAMMAMISH – Skyline Spartans Head Football Coach Peyton Pelluer evidently had some inkling that strange days were ahead when he predicted things were only going to get more surreal after he was named head coach at Skyline prior to the 2024 season. FOOTNOTE Surrealism: a 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.

Turns out he may be wrong, with recent events on the Plateau going far past the surreal.

“Most rappers die in their own city.”

- Boosie, Hypnotized with Hatred.

Last Friday, just hours before kickoff with league rival Woodinville, the Issaquah School District suspended Pelleur pending an investigation, via a letter published by Skyline Principal Keith Hennig.

“Head football coach Peyton Pelluer has been temporarily relieved of his coaching duties pending the findings and outcome of a district investigation. Assistant head coaches have assumed interim leadership of the football program.”

Hennig gave no specifics but said the district intended to conduct a quick investigation.

“It makes me sick to my stomach that someone like Peyton – someone with great integrity who embodies everything this program is about – would be treated this way.Lack of backbone and leadership from the higher ups at Skyline and the Issaquah School District. I’m beyond disappointed.”

- Jake Heaps, state title-winning Skyline alumnus and former Seahawk quarterback.

Skyline assistant coach Gino Simone later described the matter as “complaints regarding player participation” coming from “a very small but vocal minority of parents.”

Principal Hennig’s letter said the assistant coaches would run the program in Pelluer’s absence.

Initially, this was the case, as Skyline got past Woodinville Friday 49-14, in doing so taking control of the KingCo standings and staking a claim for top ten status.

Over the weekend, as news of the suspension spread, the Issaquah School District found itself on the receiving end of very public, exceedingly harsh criticism from normally reserved and supportive figures.

“I am embarrassed of Skyline High School and the Issaquah School District,” wrote the iconic former quarterback Jake Heaps. Read the J425 editorial here.

“Coach Pelluer took a dying program and revitalized it. Instead of having (his) back the weak Issaquah School District let a few disgruntled parents and athletes get their way.”

On Monday, with the final game of the regular schedule looming Friday (Senior Night, at home versus Mount Si) the entire coaching staff added a match to the gasoline, publicly quitting and vowing not to work again until Pelluer was reinstated. (You can read their communications in their entirety at the bottom of this story.)

“We want one thing here— to be back on the field with them, led by our head coach Peyton Pelluer. Our boys deserve to see the season through, but the future of the season and our program as a whole lies in the hands of ISD and Skyline,” assistant coach Gino Simone wrote.

In a Facebook post published Monday, the coaches called for Pelluer’s immediate return and provided a list of requests for the district to deliver in support of coaches.

(Continue for quotes from players, coaches, coaches from other Skyline sports, community members and more)