PLEASANTON – Randy Isaacs, a former Foothill High School basketball coach who led the Pleasanton school to a state championship game berth in 2000, has died. He was 59.
Isaacs suffered a heart attack on Saturday and died later that day.
Isaacs served as mentor to many of the East Bay Athletic League’s current coaches and remained connected to the Pleasanton school even after he retired from coaching and teaching.
“He always cared about young coaches and he always was willing to help,” Dougherty Valley basketball coach Mike Hansen said. “The good coaches are an open book and Randy was one of those guys. He went all over the world to play the game and he brought all his knowledge he knew to Pleasanton.”
Isaacs played forward at Foothill under legendary Tri-Valley basketball coach Tom Hansen, Mike’s dad. Known to his friends as “Big Red,” Isaacs earned a basketball scholarship at Chico State and played professionally in Australia before returning to his hometown to coach and teach at his alma mater.
“I remember watching him in high school and he was always an excellent player,” Dublin coach Tom Costello said.
Isaacs became head coach at Foothill in 1994, succeeding Hansen, who stepped down that year. Isaacs had his best run as the Falcons’ coach in 2000.
That season, Foothill won the Division III North Coast Section championship and made it all the way to the D-III state title game, which the Falcons lost to Bishop Montgomery-Torrance.
Isaacs was also known around coaching circles for his slick communication skills with referees and coaches that often made fans in the gym laugh.
“Randy’s personality on the court was the same as the one off it,” Mike Hansen said. “He is one of the funniest trash talkers I’ve ever been around. Whenever he would talk to referees, he would give them crap but it was always funny. He was just a big personality.”
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When Isaacs stepped down from coaching in 2008, he still remained close to the athletic program as he continued to be a clock operator at football games, something he started in the early 2000s and did until 2021.
“We are extremely saddened by the loss and are working to support his family and colleagues who have known Mr. Isaacs for a long time,” Foothill Principal Sebastian Bull wrote in an email to the Pleasanton Patch.
Isaacs is survived by his wife, Karen, and two daughters, Alyson and Haley.