San Marcos football coach Jeff Hesselmeyer passed away suddenly late Friday night or early Saturday at his home, the school reported.
The cause of death is believed to be a heart attack, but it hasn’t been confirmed.
“It’s a real shock,” said athletic director Abe Jahadhmy, who received the news while on vacation in Washington D.C.
Jahadhmy said he last saw Hesselmeyer before he left on his trip on Tuesday night.
“I was told he was at work on Friday,” Jahadhmy said.
Known affectionally as “Hess,” Hesselmeyer, 59, was entering his third season as head football coach at San Marcos. He took over the position in 2009 after Dare Holdren stepped down. He served on Holdren’s staff for two years.
Hesselmeyer started his football coaching career at Dos Pueblos. He served on the staff of the late Scott O’Leary and later became the head coach.
“He had huge influences on me,” Hesselmeyer said of O’Leary prior to Dos Pueblos naming its football stadium after the beloved coach and athletic director last year. “I had the good fortune to get to work with Scott for 25 years.”
Hesselmeyer was a widower. His wife, Jennie, passed away six years ago from cancer. They didn’t have any children.
Hesselmeyer was noted for getting the most out of his football teams and for his creative offensive mind.
At DP, he installed a wide-open passing attack and guided the program back to prominence with talented quarterbacks such as J.T. Stone (1992-95) and Anthony Ramos.
“He’s always been there for me and I’ll always be there for him,” Stone said told the News-Press back in 2001. “I love the guy. He’s a kind-hearted person and a good man. I will go to bat for him.”
He was very popular on both the San Marcos and DP campuses.
“Jeff really cared for the kids,” Jahadhmy said. “He was so kind-hearted. He could be gruff, but he was so kind-hearted to all kids and all human beings. He was such an unselfish person.”
Hesselmeyer graduated from UCSB. He taught history and coached football at Dos Pueblos for 24 years, which included 10 as head coach.
He stepped down in 1997 after winning the Santa Barbara Athetic Round Table’s high school Coach of the Year award. DP, however, talked him into returning as head coach in 1999 for two more seasons.
“He is truly special and I will miss him very much,” said Jahadhmy.
Services are pending.
