LIVERMORE — Las Positas College (LPC) men’s basketball coach James Giacomazzi keeps doing what he does best — winning games and shaping lives.
The charismatic head coach is fueled by the positive impact he’s had on players spanning decades. They appreciate his support.
“He makes me want to be better as a player, keeps me levelheaded, and holds me to a higher expectation,” Las Positas sophomore guard Richard Banks said. “Off the court, he just wants to see me succeed in life.”
Las Positas, 13-0 and ranked seventh in the Dec. 23 California Community College Men’s Basketball Coaches Association (CCCMBCA) state poll, will open the Coast Conference North season on Wednesday, Jan. 7 at Cañada College in Redwood City. The power conference boasts defending state champion City College of San Francisco.
After earning career win No. 400 on Dec. 5, Giacomazzi notched his 200th victory with Las Positas on Dec. 12. He has coached community college basketball for 28 years, 21 as a head coach.
What are the keys to winning so many games? The Livermore resident will say it’s having good players, strong family support and great assistant coaches. Not being married to one coaching philosophy is also important.
“I’ve had to adapt and adjust to my personnel, versus the personnel having to adjust to my style,” he said.
The Hawks have averaged 20 wins a season and sent 31 players to four-year programs on scholarships since Giacomazzi took the reins in 2015-16. They’ve made the regional playoffs every season.
Banks, who averages 11 points a game and is fourth in the state in steals with 40, is clearly thriving. He sees the world opening up to him, thanks in large part to Giacomazzi.
“From where I come from, not a lot of people get the opportunity that I have, but with him, he treats me as he would treat everyone. He keeps me on track to finish school and more,” said Banks, a graduate of Stockton’s Weston Ranch High School.
Jorren Edmonds, a National Association of Basketball Coaches’ All-American guard with Las Positas last season who helped the Hawks to quarterfinal berths in the California Community College Athletic Association state playoffs the past two years, looks at Giacomazzi as a mentor.
“I went to him a lot,” recalled Edmonds, who like Giacomazzi, graduated from Washington High in Fremont. “We would have a lot of conversations outside of practice about things going on in my life. … I went there (to LPC) straight out of high school, so it was a big change for me. He was always there for me every time I needed something.”
Former Hawks big man Anand Hundal played with NCAA Division I Seattle University after shining as a sophomore at LPC in 2017-18, when he averaged 14.6 points and 10.3 rebounds, and was an all-state selection. He now works as an investment consultant for Charles Schwab in Stockton and credits “Coach James” with helping him get scholarship offers.
“Kind of grew as a basketball player, as a man, being there with him for two years,” Hundal said. “Definitely a coach that has kept in contact with me after I left his program. That means a lot. He will check in with family, with life, how work is going outside of basketball. That’s how he treats all of his current players, former players, players to be.”
A year ago, the Hawks won 20 consecutive games to open the season and finished 26-5. They were ranked No. 1 in the state for five weeks. Elijah Mobley paced the offense with 19.3 points a game.
This year’s team is also on a special run. Jaden Woodard entered the holiday break averaging a team-high 17.5 points a game, and Kodey Weary was at 12.5 points and 9.2 rebounds. Freshman Ted Bigg-Wither, a 6-foot-9 gift from Australia, is an inside force with 11.1 points and 8.5 rebounds a game. He ranks third in the state in field goal percentage at 71.4 and is fourth in blocked shots with 30 — one spot ahead of Weary, who has 29.
The versatile Edmonds is excelling as a junior with Hope International University, a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) program in Fullerton. With one game left before Christmas, he was averaging 9.0 points and 4.1 rebounds a game, and led the team with 48 assists and 21 steals.
Edmonds described Giacomazzi, who is also the LPC athletic director, as “very good at allowing everybody to do their own thing but still play for the win. It’s hard to do, but he did that well.”
Edmonds recalled Giacomazzi telling players not to worry about recruiting during the season.
“Just play hard and win, and let the staff take care of that afterward,” Edmonds said. “He was always playing for the win.”
As a 6-7 former forward/center at San Jose City College and UC Riverside, Giacomazzi’s impassioned demeanor during Las Positas games can leave a lasting impression.
“It was definitely an adjustment from my previous coaches, who were not as intense on the sidelines,” said Hundal, a Manteca High graduate. “They were more mellow and chill. He’s walking up and down the sidelines, he’s yelling, he’s screaming and he’s really intense, but once you hear the message that he’s relaying, he’s just showing how passionate he is as a coach. He’s like ‘playing’ the game, but he can’t play anymore. He’s playing on the sidelines.”
Giacomazzi recruits players with a similar type of passion — and with chips on their shoulders.
“I don’t really relate to monotone, whatever happens, happens-type of guys,” he said. “I like intense facial reactions and intense passion.”
Prior to coaching at Las Positas, Giacomazzi headed the Cosumnes River program in Sacramento for 11 seasons, where his teams won two Big 8 Conference titles and reached the playoffs five times.
The 2021-22 Las Positas team, led by Edmonds and two-time all-state pick Jordahn Johnson as Coast North co-freshmen of the year, took things to a new level, earning a program-record 27 wins and 12-2 conference mark.
Current LPC assistant coach Ravi Bhambhra, who is in his second season, marveled at how Giacomazzi connects all the dots on campus.
“I recognize his impact when I see parents and people in the community, people on campus, the administrative people that have worked here for six, eight, 10 years, and see how they recognize and understand all the hard work and time he puts into the thing,” Bhambhra said.
Giacomazzi is also a devoted dad who said his family is “very much involved” in his career. He and his wife, Kristi, have two high-achieving teenage daughters, Addison and Devyn, who are both accomplished acrobatic gymnasts and Las Positas fans. Addison, a junior at Granada High, and Devyn, in the eighth grade at Christensen Middle School, are straight-A students who have traveled internationally to compete in Acro Gymnastics, and won national titles.
It’s safe to say the Giacomazzi basketball “family” is tough to beat, on and off the court.