THIS IS A STORY of excellence. De La Salle High School in Concord, Calif., was the nation’s No. 1 ranked high school with a 151-game winning streak. Their head coach, Bob Ladouceur, has had his efforts chronicled in books, films, business magazines and has received well-deserved national attention for masterminding the longest winning streak in sports history.
Bellevue High School in Bellevue, Wash., had won three state championships in the last four seasons prior to their meeting with De La Salle and were led by head coach Butch Gonchroff.
These two highly respected high school teams met in a game played in front of almost 25,000 fans at Quest Field, in Seattle, Wash., home of the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks. Bellevue defeated De La Salle 39-20, but this game is really a story about what young men (on both teams) can achieve when they are willing to sacrifice to meet their goals. It is the story of how football coaches can change young men’s lives forever to make them better people.
Gridiron Strategies wrote about De La Salle in the December 2003/January 2004 issue (page 20). This article listed 8 strategies for success that Ladouceur uses as a blue print for his team. These strategies are: 1. Start with a process and make it an everyday habit. 2. Create small victories so that players see tangible results quickly. 3. Share the pains and gains — leadership by example. 4. Be yourself. 5. Be a teacher who creates teachers. 6. Love your mistakes — it gives you the opportunity to teach. 7. Be about something bigger than football. 8. Build a team with soul.
Ladouceur also listed 10 critical items that coaches need for building a winning program which include: 1. Keep it simple. 2. Always learn. 3. Motivate year round. 4. Know the game. 5. Make technique a priority. 6. Have a serious strength program. 7. Coach relentlessly. 8. Encourage problem solving. 9. Team rules apply year round. 10. Make the running game a priority.
Gonchroff became the head coach at Bellevue in 2000 at the age of 35. Prior to taking the head coach job, he had been the offensive coordinator and running backs coach for 5 years at Bellevue. In his first year after losing 21 starters from the 1999 team, he led the team to a 6-3 record despite starting 11 sophomores. Over the next 4 seasons, he produced 3 state championship 3A teams.
On the first day of practice in 2000, Gonchroff listed 14 items that he asked of all his players.
- Have fun, make football a great experience.
- Be a great student and citizen.
- Be coachable, make eye contact with coach and listen.
- Be on time and at practice everyday.
- Keep up the P.A.S.E. (Positive Attitude Support Effort).
- Prepare to win.
- Create positive answers to three questions regarding trust, commitment and a care for others.
- Follow 3 rules 1. Do what’s right. 2. Do your best.
3. Treat others right.
- Concentrate, eliminate distractions (focus) and live in the present (event, not outcome).
- Take control and be responsible for your actions on and off the field.
- Participate in the physical conditioning program on a year-round basis
- Be a positive influence and maintain the great image of Bellevue football.
- Seniors must help coach the younger players.
- All fees must be paid, physicals taken and required packets turned in.
For his coaches, Gonchroff has 7 critical coaching points that all coaches must adhere to.
1. If you lose composure, so will the team. Discipline is the name of the game!
2. Maintain tempo — practice at game speed and allow no walking on the field. Don’t leave 40 players standing around to talk to one another.
3. Have each drill that you are responsible for planned out ahead of time. “No lineman playing catch.”
4. Only one coach talks during a drill.
5. Coach your own position. Ask the offensive or defensive coordinator for help.
6. Stress composure in the 2-minute offense. The head coach will call plays in this situation.
7. Maintain staff loyalty when we leave the room.
Common Factors For Success
Both programs have all the problems that most high school coaches face — not enough talented players, players who face huge “life” challenges as they grow up, not enough money and support, etc. So what makes these programs special and successful?
The great programs all have 5 elements that allow them to achieve what others seek, but often do not attain.
- They have great head coaches who are great leaders.
- The coaches are totally prepared and their team is always well prepared.
- The coaches care about their players more than just as football players.
- The assistant coaches are unusually talented and care about the total program just as much as the head coach.
- The players do what it takes to win.
The primary responsibility of a head coach is to motivate all the members of the team to achieve the goals of the team. They set the environment for success and are relentless in pursuing the team’s goals. They create a winning atmosphere of enthusiasm, positive attitude, desire, love and a bit of healthy fear. They set the standards and then demand compliance to them. They also love to compete at the highest level and never dodge a good team to keep a winning streak alive. These programs thrive on competition.
Preparation is the key. At De La Salle, proper technique commitment cards for each week are read aloud. Constant improvement each day is stressed and is known as a hallmark of the program. De La Salle’s staff studied Bellevue game tapes and knew they had to prepare for a physical battle up front. They hammered home the message every day as they practiced and conditioned.
It’s no different at Bellevue. The Monday after their 6-3 season in 2000, there were 48 players in the weight room even though they had been told to take some time off. During the next two years, the Bellevue staff stopped making weight-room participation goals because the players exceeded every goal they set.
In preparing to play De La Salle, the Bellevue staff broke down every game tape of De La Salle’s 2003 season. The offensive game plan for that September game was developed and set in April 2004. Bellevue practiced the game plan during both spring training and at summer camp.
Both schools use camps to better prepare their players. At De La Salle, players have gone camping, river rafting or used community service projects along with different types of camps to strengthen bonds between players.
At Bellevue, the team goes to an old Army World War II camp at Fort Warden for a week. The team lives together, has 2 or 3 practices a day in a Spartan barracks-style environment for 6 days. At the first camp in 2001, on the Thursday before returning, the players were all given letters from their families, friends, relatives, girlfriends to tell them how proud they were of their hard work and for being a member of the Bellevue football family. No one knew it was coming. After an hour on their own, the players reassembled to tell each other what being a player on that team meant to them personally. One player who was not particularly gifted athletically and a little overweight, with tears streaming down his face, told everyone how he had spent his whole life wanting to be a Bellevue football player and even though he knew he wouldn’t play much, that just being a member of the team was the most important thing in the world to him after his family. There was not a dry eye in the place. Player after player, and all the coaches told what it meant to them personally. The bonds built at Fort Warden helped take the team to its first state championship.
At Bellevue the players call him Butch but make no mistake — he commands more respect from his players than any coach I have every known. Gonchroff is humble, focused, always respects his opponents and hates media attention for himself — it’s always about the players.
Ladouceur and Gonchroff have built a culture of commitment and responsibility. Ladouceur has used what he calls “building a team with soul” to create bonds between players. These bonds pay off in crunch time.
The assistant coach factor at both schools is exceptional. Ladouceur’s staff includes the athletic director, Terry Eidson who has coached for 24 years and the dean of students, Joe Aliotti, who has been at the school for 8 years. They are totally in tune with the philosophy and direction of the program and work long hard hours to make their players the best they can be. Gonchroff’s staff includes a former pro defensive back, James Hasty, as the defensive coordinator (Hasty took over when I left after the 2001 season). A former Washington linebacker, Les Dicks, is the defensive line coach. Gonchroff also uses several former players as coaches. These young coaches help retain and build the bonds and expectations they were taught as players.
The Big Game
So what about the game? De La Salle rushed 26 times for 204 yards and 3 touchdowns. They fumbled the ball once. They attempted 22 passes, completed 11 for 103 yards and had 2 passes intercepted. They punted the ball once. They scored 20 points all in the first half.
Bellevue rushed the ball 54 times for 463 yards and 5 touchdowns. They never attempted a pass, had no turnovers and never punted the ball. They scored 39 points. There were hardly any penalties during the game. The offensive line play was amazing for both sides. Although it was the first game of the season for both teams, all of us would proud to coach players who executed the way both teams did during the game. The game ended with Bellevue taking a knee three times to kill the clock and De La Salle with two time-outs left that they never called. Bellevue had won 39-20.
A streak had ended but this was not the main priority for either program. The De La Salle staff always looks at how their players play and I promise you they played very hard. They just came up a little short.
Bellevue’s main goal was to be the first team in the state to win 5 state championships — a goal they achieved later that year with an undefeated season. Beating De La Salle was very important to Bellevue, but it never was the ultimate goal. It was just one step toward the ultimate goal.
At every position one team or the other had a slight advantage but other than QB position, the teams seemed even from a talent standpoint. The truth is that these coaching staffs got the absolute best out of what their players had to give.
I may have watched the greatest high school football game ever played. Maybe other games had better players or there were championships at stake, but this was the end of the greatest winning streak in football. And like every classic football game — people who witnessed it were sorry to see one team lose that day. But believe me — no one involved in either of those programs was a loser.