Andy Hodzic, longtime Hillsdale coach, dies at 72

Hodzic finally left coaching at Hillsdale in 2015 after nearly a quarter century with the school. On New Year’s Eve, Hodzic died at the age of 72 following a five-year battle with Ataxia Syndrome, a degenerative neurological condition.

“He started losing the ability to walk, then motor skills. He was bed-ridden for a year and half,” said Renato Hodzic, Andy’s son. “His communication really dropped over the last year. … (But) he was there mentally. He understood everything. I’d bring my son, he’d be happy. He was watching Warriors games up until the day of.”

There will be a service held for Hodzic at 11 a.m. Jan. 20 at the San Mateo Elks Lodge.

Born Feb. 12, 1946 in Konjic, Yugoslavia, in an area now known as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hamdija (Andy) Hodzic moved to the United States in 1986. He got the name “Andy” when he went to meet a prospective employer. When the man asked his name, Hodzic gave him his given name of Hamadija.

“I’m going to call you ‘Andy,’ ’cause that’s what I heard,” Renato said, retelling the story. “Every American called him ‘Andy.’ Every Bosnian called him ‘Hamadija.’

“Unless you were from the home country, it was ‘Andy.’”

A physical education teacher and coach in his home country, Hodzic started coaching at Hillsdale in the 1990s. He started the water polo program and later took over the boys’ soccer program and was a fixture for the Knights’ track and field team as a jumps coach. He first stepped away from coaching after Renato graduated from Hillsdale with a water polo scholarship to University of Pacific in Stockton in 2005. He returned to the pool deck and soccer sideline two more times. Every time one of the Knights programs hit a rough patch, Hodzic was there to prop the teams back up.

“He’s an athletic director’s dream,” said Brett Stevenson, the school’s longtime AD and boys’ basketball coach who stepped down after last season in becoming co-principal at the school. “Anyone who can coach two varsity sports (is rare). … He mentored a lot of our younger coaches. For someone to really care about the Hillsdale school and community was pretty special.”

One of those coaches was Renato who took over as boys’ varsity coach in 2009 before stepping down after the 2017 season. His older sister, Aida, coached track and field at Monte Vista High School in Danville and is now assistant superintendent for the Acalanes Union High School District in Lafayette.

Even Stevenson benefited from that mentorship. He’s known Hodzic for nearly 25 years.

“Andy coached my brother to a PAL Ocean (soccer) championship in 1997,” Stevenson said. “He coached my wife. Renato played basketball for me.”

Hodzic was not one of those coaches who vanished after his game was over. Living only a couple blocks from school, he would walk to campus to watch whatever may have been playing that day. He could be seen walking around the track during a girls’ soccer game, or perched up in the corner of the bleachers for a mid-week boys’ basketball game.

By the time Renato reached Hillsdale, Andy Hodzic had been coaching at the school for about a decade. His sister had graduated from Hillsdale in 1998 and there was no question what school Renato would attend.

“I asked him, ‘Why Hillsdale?’ He coached in Europe and was looking to get back into coaching. That’s kind of why he started coaching (at Hillsdale). After that, it was the sense of community. He just loved the aspect of what Hillsdale was in the early 1990s,” Renato, 31, said. “The royalty of Hillsdale athletics were my baby-sitters. [I] grew up around Hillsdale. … I was part of the family.

“I don’t know who liked it more when I put my Hillsdale jersey on (for the first time), me or him.”

Hodzic’s last reclamation project at Hillsdale came during the 2014-15 boys’ soccer season, when he helped guide the Knights to the Ocean Division title and a spot in the Central Coast Section playoffs.

“He’s just an amazing human being,” Stevenson said.