De La Salle defensive line coach Steve Jacoby dies suddenly

CONCORD — The De La Salle football team sang Happy Birthday to defensive line coach Steve Jacoby on Tuesday, a memory that head coach Justin Alumbaugh said on Friday will never be forgotten.

Jacoby, 61, died suddenly on Thursday, leaving the De La Salle community in a state of shock.

The coaches met Thursday after learning of Jacoby’s passing and broke the news to the team on Friday morning.

They left it up to the players whether to cancel Friday night’s home game against El Cerrito.

The players elected to play because, as Alumbaugh said, that is what their defensive line coach would have wanted.

“He would want to kill me if I didn’t let the kids play,” Alumbaugh said. “We wanted to provide the opportunity for them to play but also be understanding with what’s going on. I spoke honestly with them. I said, ‘I know my friend would want me to go out.’

“It’s going to be sad and hard. But they’re young men. They’re capable of making decisions, too. I let them know they could make whatever decision that they’re comfortable with and we’ll fully support it. I let them grieve for a while and they talked.”

After the players finished, edge rusher Drew Cunningham, a senior captain, told Alumabaugh that the team wanted to play.

Jacoby was a gregarious presence in the De La Salle football community, never having a conversation without asking how the other person was doing.

“And he meant it, too,” Alumbaugh said.

Jacoby had coached at De La Salle since 2006.

On Tuesday, as Alumbaugh noted, Jacoby was all smiles when the team serenaded him.

“The team sang happy birthday for him,” Alumbaugh said. “It’s a memory that will be etched in my mind forever. The team was happy and smiling and he had that big, old Jacoby grin.”