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It was July 30, a day like any other for the Livermore High varsity football team.
With head coach John Wade out of town, defensive coordinator and linebacker coach Scott Baswell ran the conditioning practice for the Cowboys.
The practice ended with some relay races and good spirits from the players and the extremely popular coach. The season wasn’t far away from officially beginning and the team had high hopes.
By the next morning, the world was turned upside down for the players as Coach Baswell passed away in sleep early on July 31.
The players didn’t know until they showed up for practice the next morning.
“Coach Bas was always there early,” senior linebacker Diego Ramirez said. “I showed up early at 8 a.m. and he wasn’t there, which was odd. Coach Petersdorf (Livermore athletic director) showed up and I saw a grim look on his face. He got us all in the locker room and I started putting two and two together. At that point, it was just words. I dropped to my knees — everyone was in tears.”
Ramirez and Livermore running back Kamarri Robinson were two of the closest players to Bas. Robinson was going to be late to practice as he had a DMV appointment, something he had texted with Bas the night before.
“I got the call at the DMV,” Robinson recalled. “I couldn’t take the test, and I had to leave — my heart sank.”
It was amazing and encouraging to me to see the grace and composure the two players carried themselves with while we talked about Bas and how they are approaching the season.
One thing that has always struck me about Livermore High athletics, in pretty much every sport, is the sense of family and community the athletes and coaches carry amongst themselves.
There was no shortage of that here.
“I made it known how much (Bas) meant to me,” Ramirez said of what he told his teammates after hearing the news in the locker room. “We were all in a lot of pain, but I knew he wouldn’t have wanted to see the team that way. He always said, ‘quit bitching and get something done’. I told everyone he would want us to get to work.”
With the healing process underway, Petersdorf and the Livermore staff planned for the Sept. 6 home opener against Castro Valley as the night the school would honor the coach.
Baswell, a big man with a big beard who always wore sunglasses, had a character image on T-shirts that were available for purchase, as well as sunglasses with “BAS” on the frames. All proceeds are going to the family.
Bas, a retired Newark police officer, was Livermore High in so many ways, inspiring and mentoring the players. He instilled confidence and a love for the sport of football in the players.
His parents joined the team for the coin toss last Friday, then came the emotions of playing the game.
“We needed to win this game,” Robinson said of the Castro Valley game. “We were playing the game for Bas. There was a lot of emotion.”
“The emotions were high,” Ramirez said. “It was a much-anticipated, much-needed game. His passing rocked us to the core. He always told us to ‘set the tone.'”
For Ramirez, the passing of Bas cut deep. After playing junior football, Ramirez got to high school with a waning interest in the sport.
That was until he met Bas.
“I had lost my love for the sport, and he brought it back,” Ramirez said. “As a freshman, I saw this big old dude, with a big old beard. He looked scary but I wasn’t intimidated. There was just something about him — I wanted him to be my coach.”
If nothing else, Bas certainly looked intimidating, with Robinson adding that he looked like a “Hells Angels biker”. But both players dispelled anything in that direction.
“I thought he was scary when I was a freshman,” Robinson said. “But he wasn’t like that at all. You just had to see the work he put into practice and all he did for the players.”
Ramirez took it a step further.
“He’s not the way he came off,” Ramirez said. “He was a big old teddy bear. I used to tell him that all the time — sometimes I thought he might punch me for saying that. He had a joke for everything, but he could get his point across when he needed to.”
Now that the Cowboys have gotten through the emotions of the first home game, they can set about the rest of the season, even without their coach, friend, and mentor.
“It’s all for him,” Ramirez said. “His son told us, “He wouldn’t have left if he thought we couldn’t win it all.”
And that includes winning the East Bay Athletic League Valley Division, with the final game of the EBAL season coming against crosstown rival Granada.
“He hated Granada, and I am right there with him,” Ramirez said. “He may be gone, but he is still here with us. He didn’t need to coach — he did everything for us out of the kindness of his heart.”
The Cowboys will be an easy team to root for this season. After talking with the two players, one thing that came to me is that Bas will be looking down from above with nothing but love for his players.
RIP Bas and I hope his family can carry with them the impact he made for so many. Truly a great man and someone who will be missed by many.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation.
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