Ride on Concord--De La Salle--an Unbeatable Experience

Justin Alumbaugh vividly remembers playing sandlot football games behind the bleachers on Friday nights when his brother was toiling as an offensive lineman for the De La Salle High football team in Concord, in the Bay Area.

That was in 1992, when Alumbaugh was a sixth-grader, and the only streak on his mind was the one he and his friends made to the concession stand between touchdowns.

“I was having so much fun playing around, I didn’t realize back then that De La Salle’s football team was starting something special,” said Alumbaugh, now a senior two-way starter for the Spartans.

Alumbaugh is talking about “the streak.”

Last week, De La Salle won its 72nd consecutive game, tying the national record set by Hudson High of Hudson, Mich., in 1975. Tonight, the Spartans (8-0) will try to break that record when they play College Park (4-4) of Pleasant Hill.

Odds are, they will do it, and then some.

Coach Bob Ladouceur’s teams have not been beaten since a 35-27 defeat by Pittsburg in the 1991 North Coast Section 3-A championship game, a loss that ended a 34-game winning streak. No team has held the Spartans under 30 points since. The Spartans have won five consecutive championships and 12 titles overall in the section’s largest division and have had 10 undefeated seasons in Ladouceur’s 18 as coach.

“Having a head coach on campus for this many years lends stability to the program,” said De La Salle Athletic Director Terry Eidsen, who doubles as defensive coordinator. “I heard one of our kids tell someone, ‘For a lot of schools, football is a hobby. For us it’s a way of life.’ ”

De La Salle has had a national reputation for years. But the streak has put the 900-student boys’ parochial school in Contra Costa County at the center of an overwhelming media onslaught.

“It’s gotten to the point that for some kids, it’s going to be a relief when this game is over,” said Ladouceur, who worked as a probation officer before taking over the program in 1979. “Win or lose, it’s going to get back to normal.”

At De La Salle, a return to normal simply means a return to dedicated work.

Spartan players participate in a rigorous conditioning program all but three weeks of the year. Only a few football players participate in other sports, and those who do, such as Alumbaugh, report for 6:30 a.m. workout sessions during the spring before attending classes and baseball or track practice in the afternoon.

“We don’t have a secret to success and we don’t necessarily have better athletes than a lot of the teams we play against, we just work harder than any other school,” Alumbaugh said. “It comes down to commitment.”

Ladouceur, who played defensive back at San Jose State from 1974-76, began fostering that commitment when he took over the struggling program. He installed a simple veer-option offense and has kept his playbook basic while compiling a 208-14-1 record.

USC receiver Mike Bastianelli was a three-year starter for the Spartans, playing quarterback and safety his senior season in 1994. Bastianelli said Ladouceur’s approach can make an average player outstanding.

“We were taught to play with heart,” Bastianelli said. “That’s what Coach taught: ‘Play with your head and your heart, and your body will follow.’ . . . I doubt if they’ll ever lose, honestly, as long as Coach is there.”

That very concern last January prompted one principal to threaten to forfeit this season’s game against De La Salle, citing unfair competition. He later thought better of it, but many opposing coaches and administrators in the Bay Valley Athletic League and North Coast Section have long accused De La Salle of recruiting, a charge Ladouceur and Eidsen deny.

Next season, however, De La Salle will not compete for the BVAL title and will instead compete as a quasi-independent. One of the Spartans’ games will be in Orange County, against defending Southern Section Division I-champion Santa Ana Mater Dei.

Times staff writer Robyn Norwood contributed to this story.