Casa Grande basketball coach James Forni, 35, dies after battle with cancer

-Even when Casa Grande High School coach and teacher James Forni became ill, he continued to focus on his students and kept his positive attitude that belied a serious battle with cancer.

Colleagues and students recalled his dedication in the face of an eight-year fight with melanoma that took his life Sunday morning. He was 35.

“He was truly in a life-and-death struggle and you would never know it,” Casa Grande Principal Linda Scheele said. “It was all about his teaching and coaching, and he wanted to be there for the kids.”

Scheele said it was impossible to calculate the impact Forni, the varsity basketball coach and physical education teacher, had in his dozen years working at Casa Grande.

“He has touched so many students, faculty members and members of the community,” she said.

Role model, inspiration, loved and respected and ultimately a fighter. Those were some of the descriptions that poured forth Sunday as news of Forni’s passing spread quickly through Petaluma, where he was a member of a well-known family with longtime ties to the community.