LeDuc Chose a Refresher Course

Eleven league titles in 15 seasons. Four Southern Section championships. Fourteen consecutive seasons of 23 or more victories.

Mike LeDuc of Glendora High isn’t just any coach. He’s a professor of basketball, a man who belongs in the upper echelon when it comes to rating the best of the best in the high school coaching profession.

What separates him aren’t the championships his teams have won or the three prolific scorers--Tracy Murray, Cameron Murray and Casey Jacobsen--he once tutored. It was a decision he made off the court.

Ten years ago, at age 37, LeDuc gave up his coaching position--for one season.

“Glendora has one of the best followings of any public school in the CIF,” LeDuc said at the time. “But with that kind of support come expectations that nothing less than winning is accepted. The wear and tear over the years takes a toll. I felt I just needed some time to stand back and catch my breath.”

LeDuc wasn’t burned out. He still loved to coach and thrived on competition. He was just tired and wanted time to reflect. He spent the season watching Glendora games while serving as athletic director.

He returned the next season with renewed vigor and a greater appreciation for what his job truly required.

“It changed me,” he said.

Gone were his annual goals of winning a league title or a Southern Section championship.

“Those are goals I don’t have any more and haven’t had for 10 years,” he said.

He began to understand that if he got his players to fulfill their potential, everything else would fall into place.

“It’s a good thing for coaches after an extended time of coaching to take a year off,” he said. “It brings good vision why we’re here. These are high school kids, not NBA players. It’s a learning experience. I think by stepping out of the competitive experience we live in, you can see that better.

“I came back understanding that doing the best you can is good enough. You don’t have to win every game. You can make mistakes. It’s not about winning and losing.”

His teams are stronger than ever. Glendora won the Division I-AA championship last season with no big-name players.

The Tartans (26-2) are in position to win the I-A title this season with no Murrays and no Jacobsens.

Three seniors--5-foot-11 Larry Monroe, 6-6 Spencer Foster and 6-2 Michael Mehanna--have helped Glendora reach tonight’s quarterfinals against Lancaster.

LeDuc has created a program that brings out the best in his players. Glendora is a one-high school town in an upper-middle class community. Players walk through the gym as freshmen and are trained until the moment they have to turn in their uniforms as graduated seniors. They’re educated with values and fundamentals that never leave them.

“When they show up as freshmen, we teach them a system,” LeDuc said. “It’s a simple system, yet it takes a lot of repetition to be good at.”

Glendora players learn to play specific roles. Somehow, since the day he arrived in 1986, LeDuc has been able to convince players to sacrifice for the good of the team. Maybe it had something to do with luck. Tracy Murray was a sophomore in LeDuc’s first season as coach.

“It was easy for players to buy into getting the ball to him as good as Tracy was,” LeDuc said. “In my opinion, he was the most dominant offensive player in the history of California [basketball]. Once your kids have bought in, tradition takes over.”

There are other LeDuc trademarks. He’s not a screamer, although he does raise his voice.

“I think if you yell too much, you lose a lot of impact,” he said. “I try to reserve it to when it can do something positive.”

He goes through many games without using any timeouts. He has lots of plays he can call out for special situations. He doesn’t want to give opponents time to regroup and he expects his players to stay composed.

Three of LeDuc’s former assistants qualified teams for this season’s I-A playoffs. Two of them, Ty Stockham of San Bernardino San Gorgonio and Yancy Dodson of Riverside Poly, met in Tuesday’s second round. San Gorgonio won.

“I hated to see either one lose,” LeDuc said.

In Tuesday’s semifinals, Glendora could face Thousand Oaks, which has already knocked off former LeDuc assistant Gordon Hamlow of Rowland and, to advance, must defeat San Gorgonio tonight. By then, the Tartans will have seen many of LeDuc’s strategies from his former coaches.

But the master still has plenty of tricks.

LeDuc is preparing for a new challenge next season. He’s 47 and his son, Matthew, will arrive as a freshman.

“He’s a regular kid who wants to play basketball,” LeDuc said.

Matthew couldn’t have a better coach and father to learn from.

Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com