The Millikan football community is mourning the loss of longtime team mom Heather Tuggle, who passed away at the end of December after a year-long battle with stage four metastatic squamous cell cancer.
Tuggle joined the program with the hiring of current head coach Romeo Pellum in 2019 as her son, Riley, played as a freshman on the football team, quickly becoming a constant presence who dedicated much of her daily life to supporting the program. Along with Riley, Heather leaves behind her daughter Mollie and husband of 21 years, Tommy.
“Heather was an inspiration every single day,” Tommy said. “Anybody that knew her knew that the moment you were around her you immediately felt better. She was my support system, she was my rock, and Heather had no faults. She was the kindest and most loving human being that I’ve ever met and I hit the lottery to be able to marry her.”
Tuggle first became involved with the football community as a team mom when Riley played Pop Warner football in seventh grade on a team coached by Pellum. She quickly developed a close relationship with Pellum and later teamed up with him in their first year at Millikan, where she dedicated hours each day to helping with whatever the program needed.
“She was everything to our program,” Pellum said of Tuggle. “She started volunteering seven years ago when we took over the program, managing the daily needs, the communication, while capturing all of the photos on the sidelines on Friday nights. And as everyone would say and know, Heather also gave the best hugs.”
Around the time of her first year with Millikan, Tuggle left her daytime job at an insurance company to help care for her daughter Mollie, who has Down syndrome. She also volunteered extensively with Down for Dance, a dance program Mollie was involved in, on top of the countless hours spent supporting Millikan football players.
“She enjoyed it, it was like a full-time job. I told her, ‘Man, I work hard enough so that you don’t need to work,’” Tommy joked. “But she just liked it so much. I started to see the connection between Heather and the players, and it made me proud that she meant so much to the kids and their parents. And it’s hard to deal with parents, but she had a superpower. She just somehow was able to deal with everything.”
Many players considered Tuggle a second mother, and said she was constantly making sure their grades were in check while also ensuring they were taken care of, from rides home to everyday support.
“She was more to us than just a team mom,” said three-year defensive end Peyton McCutcheon. “She was always there when we needed her and she always made sure everyone on the team was good. She was always at the school making sure we were on top of our stuff. She was the first person that greeted me when I transferred, and she’s the reason we were able to call Millikan home.”
Tuggle was first diagnosed in December 2024 and spent the last year of her life in and out of the hospital due to infections and organ-related complications from chemotherapy, undergoing more than a dozen surgeries and making an estimated 25-plus trips to the hospital.
Still, Tuggle made it her mission to stay involved with the program. Even with limited mobility as her health declined, she would show up at Millikan and watch games from her car, parked along Palos Verdes in a spot Pellum would save for her. Through the ups and downs, Tuggle was eventually able to return to the field in a wheelchair, where she also got to watch Riley coach on the sidelines.
“She never let us see her down,” McCutcheon. “Whenever we saw her it was always the biggest smile—ear to ear. It was heartbreaking to see her at the games in a wheelchair, but she turned into a motivation for us to play. Even as she faced more adversity, she always, and I mean always, smiled and made sure to say hi to every single person on the team.”
When Tuggle wasn’t volunteering, she usually spent her time with family. They took frequent trips to Sequoia National Park, where she and Tommy were married, and watched Steelers games every Sunday—a tradition they kept even during her hospital stays in the final months. In quieter moments, Tuggle enjoyed reading or spending hours putting together her favorite Harry Potter LEGO sets.
A public memorial service will be held for Tuggle on Jan. 31 at Calvary Chapel Westgrove in Garden Grove at 11 a.m. The Tuggle family is still asking for support to help cover medical expenses from those able to contribute through the GoFundMe link.
