Skyline Football’s decorated history of success began with recruiting Puyallup High School and Oregon State alumni Steve Gervais, who assumed the role of head coach at the start of the 1998 season. 

Gervais is an accomplished leader who previously coached three state championship football teams at Eatonville High School, and was a part of Skyline’s first state championship in a victory over Cedarcrest in October of 2000.

Mitch Browne, senior quarterback and older brother to Max Browne, connected on 23 of 29 passes for 382 yards and four touchdowns in the win. His performance, along with the rest of the 2000 Spartan team, paved the way for years of dominance in the KingCo Conference. 

The Spartans would suffer their only state championship defeat under Gervais in 2004, when they began the season 0-1 after a 31-14 defeat against Lake Washington. Skyline then proceeded on a 12-0 run where they met undefeated Evergreen that December in the Tacoma Dome. The Plainsmen would overcome a two touchdown deficit and win the 4A title 28-14.

Quarterbacks Jason Harris and Jake Heaps would both win state title victories in 2005 and 2007 respectively under Gervais, and establish the notion that the Spartan football program was more than capable of producing collegiate level arm talent almost every year. 

Harris was a converted outside linebacker who had earned KingCo 4A defensive MVP honors in his junior season, and was awarded the #1 QB spot in his final season. When asked about the change in a Seattle Times interview, Harris emphasized caution.

“If I’m running the ball, I’ve got to be aware of when those couple extra yards make a difference and when they don’t,” Harris said. “[Coach Steve] Gervais has been telling me to get out of bounds. Those extra hits will take a toll on you; it doesn’t matter who you are.”

It was safe to say that Gervais made the right decision placing the 17-year-old at the helm. The Spartans continued their regular season tear, carving through the lesser in-conference competition until they found themselves back where they left off in the 4A title game.

Harris made quick work of the opposing Woodinville Falcon defense, completing 19 of his 24 passes for 281 yards and three touchdowns. Woodinville had only allowed 35 total points in the postseason before falling to the Spartans 35-21.

Jake Heaps would be the last quarterback to serve under Gervais at Skyline, and arguably the most talented of the bunch. 

Gervais appointed Heaps the starting position in his sophomore year, a time when the quarterback had been contemplating his athletic commitments.

Questions floated around the program about Heaps’ ability to lead early on, but the 16-year-old silenced the doubters quickly, throwing for 31 touchdowns in his first season as the Varsity starter. The Spartans strolled straight into the championship without losing a game, completing a historic 42-35 comeback victory over Monte Kohler’s O’Dea Fighting Irish after falling behind 28-7 with ten minutes left in the third quarter.

“Coming off a broken leg while only being a sophomore and helping lead that team back was a very special experience,” said Jake’s mother Kelly in an interview with SSOT. “How do you top that?”

In his legendary decade-long tenure, Gervais would boast an overall record of 94-22, a total winning percentage of over 80%. His reign at Skyline would come to a close after being offered an assistant position at the University of Washington.

Mat Taylor

As the 2008 season kicked off for the reigning 3A state champions, the new head coach had big shoes to fill and more history to make. Coach Mat Taylor’s first year as head coach of Skyline came on the heels of an undefeated season that was capped off with a State Championship. Taylor’s first season also marked Skyline’s return to the 4A athletic division after a two year hiatus.

Skyline were three time state champions by the time Taylor took over as head coach. Over the next decade, Taylor would lead Skyline to six KingCo championships and four State championships in 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012. With star quarterbacks Jake Heaps and Max Browne leading the team throughout the majority of Taylor’s tenure as head coach.

Heading into the 2011 season, the team included some of the finest players to take to the field for Skyline. Kasen Williams, the Washington State Gatorade player of the year in 2010 and 2011 and future UW wide receiver, was starting his senior year. Quarterback Max Browne was replacing the legendary Jake Heaps who was heading to BYU. 

Prior to his time in green and silver, Browne was privately coached by Taylor’s predecessor Steve Gervais, during his middle school years, shaping him to become the future record breaking player he became.

Browne more than stepped up to the task of quarterback of the defending state champions. The future USC player had a 73.5% completion rate, with 146 touchdown passes and led the team to three straight 4A State Championship games, winning two of them.

Coach Taylor was well aware of Browne’s capability. While being interviewed about Browne winning the 2012 State and National Gatorade football player of the year, Taylor commented “he is arguably the best quarterback in state history.”

Like everyone, their time in high school comes to an end. With Williams graduating in 2012 and Browne graduating in 2013, the team that dominated the 4A level for so many years, was losing its star players. 

Coach Taylor was left without a star quarterback for his first time as head coach, however the 2013 season showed Skyline was a team that could be successful without star players. The Spartans went 9-2 during the season making it to the playoffs. However, Skyline had a less successful campaign in 2014 going 6-4 and falling to second in KingCo. 

The following season the Spartans returned to the top step of KingCo in 2015 going 12-2, and making it to the state championship game for a 10th time in the 19 years the school had been open.

The major success of the coach Taylor era, came to a close at the end of the 2015 season as Skyline has yet to beat the other nine teams in the division to the KingCo title since then. The 2018 season marked the end of Coach Taylor’s time as head coach, with defensive line coach Cameron Elisara stepping up to the head coach role.

Throughout the latter half of the Taylor era, there were never any players that dominated their position on the field in the way Browne or Heaps did. Although, players like Matthew Cindric (class of 2018) and Joe Green (class of 2019), left their mark in Skyline football history post 2015. With Cindric going on to play football at the University of California Berkeley and Green heading down to play at San Diego State before moving to Columbia.

The slow down in success over the years stemmed from a lack of players on the level of Williams and Heaps. Without these star players Skyline fell from a state championship winning team to a district winning team. 

Cameron Elisara

Only the current senior class at Skyline high school has experienced the Taylor era, with their freshman year overlapping with Taylor’s final year. Defensive line coach Cameron Elisara moved into the head coach role after the 2018 season had come to an end.

Elisara played college ball at the University of Washington as defensive tackle from 2006 to 2009, while working on the path to become a teacher. In 2015 Elisara came to Skyline as a math teacher and coach for both the football and track teams (he was the 2005 Washington State shot put champion).

Elisara spent the next four years as defensive line coach, on a team that went 12-2 and made it to the state championship game, losing out to Gonzaga Prep in his first season as a coach. After his first season as coach, the Spartans began a downhill slide in terms of performance.

In 2018, the last year prior to Elisara taking over as head coach, the Spartans went 6-5, a good season but not on the level Skyline once was.

Starting off Elisara’s first year as head coach Skyline went 3-6, a rocky start to Elisara’s head coach tenure but spirit remained high on the team. The second year of Elisara’s coaching time was distorted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Returning from a pandemic season where the Spartans went 2-2, Skyline kicked off their most recent season with two losses but coming back strong to beat Bishop Blanchet 44-7. The green and silver team finished off their season going 4-6, showing a slight upward trend in Elisara’s coaching career. 

Without recent success it is hard to sort through the players to determine who has the potential to be the next star player from Skyline. 

The Spartans may be in a slump right now but when the school first opened, the football team’s first season was absent of a single victory. Over the next five seasons the team progressed to a state championship winning team with undefeated seasons.

Skyline has had major comebacks before, from a victory less season to an undefeated season in four years, the Spartans are fully capable of returning to their prior glory.

Max Browne in 2011.

Kasen Williams at the 2009 state championship game.