Concord De La Salle coach doesn’t mind the pressure

For the sixth consecutive year, Concord De La Salle is coming to Carson to compete in a CIF state football championship bowl game. It’s about as certain as the swallows returning every March to San Juan Capistrano.

The Spartans are 3-2 since the bowl championships began in 2006.

De La Salle Coach Bob Ladouceur has become the high school football version of John Wooden. Among his achievements in 33 years of coaching:

— A 383-25-3 overall record, making him the winningest coach in state history.

— Twenty consecutive North Coast Section championships.

— A national-record 151-game winning streak from 1992 to 2004.

So when the Spartans play Westlake Village Westlake on Saturday at 8 p.m. in the Open Division bowl game at the Home Depot Center, expectations will be high. And Ladouceur is fine with that.

“We have pressure for sure,” he said in a phone interview this week. “Most of it is self-imposed. There is a certain expectation people who have followed us expect. We don’t let that influence us. We know where we can go and how far we can go.”

This year’s team is 12-1 and led by a defense that has recorded four shutouts and given up only a field goal in three other games.

“They’ve given our offense a lot of opportunities,” Ladouceur said.

De La Salle’s best college prospect is quarterback Bart Houston, a 6-foot-4 senior who is committed to Wisconsin and helped the Spartans defeat Anaheim Servite, 48-8, in last year’s bowl game.

Ladouceur said he has growing confidence in this year’s team.

“Earlier in the season I had my doubts, wondering if these guys were going to come around and start improving individually as players, and they have,” he said.

Asked if he’s still having fun, Ladouceur said, “I enjoy the kids and the challenge. Every year is a new challenge to try to maintain a certain level of play. You get a different group every year. It’s like you’re starting from scratch again.”

Maturing quarterback

The year began with junior quarterback Johnny Stanton of Santa Margarita being inexperienced and people not knowing how good he might be. It is ending with Stanton being praised as one of the best in the Southland. He has rushed for 1,451 yards and passed for 2,133 yards entering Friday’s Division I bowl game against San Jose Bellarmine.

“Johnny Stanton continues to get better,” Coach Harry Welch said. “He started off as a young man with skills who wanted badly to be a very good quarterback but needed the time and the experience. Now he’s developing into a young man who perhaps in the next year may be one of the finer quarterbacks in America.”

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

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