Remembering Randy. Everyone in Malvern knew coach; no one knew what he was going through.

MALVERN — Ray Bobo can't quite recall when his front porch, just across the bridge on Green Street, became such a meeting place.

"Somebody would stop by," Bobo said. "Then somebody else would come by and see us talking.

Then somebody else would stop by."

Eventually a regular little crowd came around practically every warm Sunday night.

"It's been that way for a long, long time," said Bobo, 69.

Randy Casper new the way to the Ray Bobo's porch, but he won't be coming around any more. He has been gone since Valentine's Day.

Randy had been sick more than two years without telling anyone. He didn't want his burden to become someone else's. He was able to be himself despite the cancer, and being himself began with showing up with a smile on his face.

"When Randy wasn't coaching," Dave Tucci said, "he was going to all the Malvern games. It didn't matter the sport."

He spent quite a bit of time coaching girls basketball, including nine years as Malvern's head coach. For the last dozen seasons he has been a varsity assistant.

He worked one last game, on the end of the bench at Newcomerstown, on Dec. 29. By then everyone knew he was struggling.

Everybody in the IVC knew Randy, and in the end, everyone was saddened in knowing he was leaving. A district coaches' board met to name a 2022 honors team shortly before Randy died. The discussion over "assistant coach of the year" didn't last long.

Jason Powers, head coach of the Malvern girls, says he is bad at season-ending speeches. He recalls an eerie comfort while speaking at the 2022 team banquet, shortly after Randy's death.

"What I said really came from Randy's voice," Powers said.

Powers, 48, is a coach's son who has seen all kinds of basketball, including when he coached for a year in Australia. There was something about Randy ...

"He knew more about an opponent by reading the box score than a lot of coaches know by scouting them three times," Powers said. "He had a mind for the game. The kids really liked him.

"He wasn't really very old (61 when he died), but he had an old basketball soul.

"He was as loyal as they come. Every coach he's been with ... he never let somebody talk bad about somebody else. He always found the good in people."

Randy worked at Timken Steel in Canton for 30 years. Midnight shifts as a machine operator gave him the flexibility to arrange coaching schedules.

He grew up on "the hill," as Malvern people know it, and eventually built his own house near his parents' place.

He wore the Malvern green as part of the graduating class of 1978. His basketball coach, Dan Dennis, recalls a blond-haired kid who could really shoot. The coach called Randy "Downtown Freddie Brown," a nod to an NBA marksman of that era.

One time Randy hadn't practiced for weeks because of an injury.

"We were playing Garaway, coached by Tom Andreas," Dennis said. "Randy was about 70% healthy. We were behind five or six points in the third quarter when I put Randy in to shoot. He hit three bombs in a row.

"He was winded and patted his chest to ask for a break. In unison his teammates and I yelled, 'Stay in and keep shooting!' He hit some more bombs and we won. We had never beaten Garaway until that night.

"Randy was the ultimate teammate. He always had a big grin on his face, and he always gave 100%."

Doug Wackerly, Randy's high school teammate, recalls a 1978 game against an IVC rival.

"Randy broke his foot his senior year," Wackerly said. "He was back for a game against Strasburg. He hit some shots from the corner, and we upset Strasburg. He was so worn out at the end that we had to help him off the court."

A few decades later, Wackerly told Randy he would apply for the girls basketball opening at Malvern if Randy would be his assistant. They coached together for seven years until Powers was promoted from junior varsity coach to head coach. Then Randy worked for Powers.

"Randy was as loyal as could be," Wackerly said. "He would do anything for anybody. He was good with the players. When I would growl at them, he would bring them back.

"We were close friends. We spent a lot of time sitting outside in back of my house. I miss that."

Years ago, Randy coached junior high boys basketball in Dennis Tucci's program. The Tuccis and Randy are part of the crowd that has frequented Ray Bobo's porch.

"We'd all try to stop down there a couple nights a week and get caught up on everything," Dave Tucci said.

Randy knew the region's sports scene better than most. Any questions about Ohio State football? He was a walking Buckeye newsletter. The Browns would have been better off if he had run their drafts. He attended as many Ohio State and Cleveland pro sports games as he could.

The Canton McKinley Bulldogs were his No. 2 high school team.

The road always led back to his forever No. 1, Malvern.

Randy was married but separated and did not remarry. He experienced loss in recent years. His dad, Joe, died in 2016. His brother, Christopher, was 63 when he passed in 2020. His mother, Lorene, died a few months after Christopher.

The family had a long relationship with St. Francis Catholic Church in Malvern. Friends remember Randy as a man of strong Christian beliefs.

The surviving member of the house on the hill is Mary Beth Casper, who lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.

"Our parents built the home on the hill. Randy bought property right behind them and took care of them for many years," Mary Beth said. "Malvern is very close-knit. We knew everybody. I think to this day, still, it's close knit ... a very neighborhood feeling.

"Randy ... I loved him. He was a good guy. Just a good guy."

Mary Beth spent a number of Randy's final days with him. At one point she asked if there was some act he might appreciate. He mentioned a flag.

"Randy always wanted to see one of those rolling-down flags in the gym ... the ones that appear for the National Anthem and can be taken back up," Dave Tucci said.

Word got out in the community. Money soon got raised. Recently, the new flag was installed in Randy's honor, just overhead from the home-team bench.

The red, white and blue weren't the only colors in Randy's life.

As Dan Dennis, Randy's old Malvern coach, put it, "I think he was born with green blood."

Reach Steve at steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @sdoerschukREP

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Basketball coach who died at 61 was Malvern Hornets green rock