Former Mustang basketball player Randy Pirner has fond memories
of playing under Bob Hagen
Randy Pirner likes to keep up with happenings in Gilroy.
Pirner lives in Sioux City, Iowa, and is the secondary principal at Homer High School in Homer, Neb. But for five years, he was a student-athlete in Gilroy.
It was back in the 1970s. And yet the memories of playing basketball for the legendary Bob Hagen came rushing back as he read about the tournament at Gilroy High two weeks ago.
“Coach Hagen was a disciplinarian,” Pirmer said during a recent telephone conversation. “He stressed defense and wanted you to work your butt off. But I remember he cared about kids.”
He took a special liking to a 5-11 guard who had played at Brownell Junior High. He told that young man, Pirner, that he wanted him on the varsity as a freshman.
A couple of upperclassmen took exception to that decision and gave Pirmer a hard time. Hagen, however, told him to hang in and worry about playing basketball.
The two were close enough that Hagen was going to let Pirmer move in with him and his family during the young man’s sophomore year, Pirmer recalled.
It never happened because Hagen died of a heart attack the fall of his sophomore year in 1977.
“I was walking to school and somebody pulled over and told me he had died,” Pirmer said. “I thought ‘no way.’ I turned around and walked home. I didn’t go to school that day. It floored me.”
It was the final school year that Pirmer spent in Gilroy. His mother got remarried and moved to Manteca. Pirmer finished his sophomore year at Gilroy and, in fact, was the first recipient of the Bob Hagen Award. And then he returned to Wagner, South Dakota, from where he had moved with his mother during sixth grade.
He moved back with his father. Pirmer was all-state in football and basketball, and won three events in the state track meet. He went to South Dakota State University where he played defensive back in football and earned all-conference honors. But Hagen was never far from his thoughts.
“Because of Coach Hagen, I knew I wanted to be a coach and teacher,” said Pirmer, 44, who followed that route before becoming a high school principal 10 years ago. “When you’re in junior high in Gilroy, the biggest thing is the opportunity to play for coach Hagen.”
