Legendary De La Salle football coach speaks at mentoring summit in Turlock

If Bob Ladouceur had decided when he was a teenager that he wanted to be a titan of industry, there’s little doubt he’d be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company today.

But that’s not what called to the former head football coach at De La Salle High School in Concord.

One summer, after coaching a peewee baseball team, Ladouceur knew he wanted to work with kids. That desire ultimately led him to De La Salle, where he built the nation’s greatest football dynasty.

“Everybody always asks, ‘What’s the secret of your success?’ ” said Ladouceur, the keynote lunch speaker at Sierra Vista Child and Family Services’ third annual Regional Mentoring Summit on Friday at California State University, Stanislaus.

He told the audience of about 250, which included several Stanislaus District coaches, that he was unaware “hard work” was a secret and that his 34-year run as head coach of the Spartans, though wildly successful, was never about wins and losses.

“I was fortunate that I was able to do something where I thought I was meant to be,” said Ladouceur, the winningest coach in California history with a 399-25-3 career record, including a national-record 151 consecutive wins from 1992 to 2003. “When I took over, I was 24 years old and the program was in shambles, but I didn’t care. I just wanted a chance to work with kids.”

After graduating from San Jose State, where he played football for two seasons, the Detroit native worked as a juvenile hall counselor. But he didn’t feel he was making enough of an impact. So, after receiving his master’s in theology at Saint Mary’s, he accepted a position at De La Salle as a teacher and football coach of a program that had never had a winning season.

That changed rather abruptly.

When Ladouceur retired as head coach after the 2012 season, he had more North Coast Section championship banners (28) than career losses, and nearly as many undefeated seasons (20). But helping his players find direction off the football field makes him proudest.

Before each season, Ladouceur would ask his players to list two short-term and two long-term football goals, their strengths that would help them achieve those goals, and the weaknesses that might prevent them from doing so. Later in the season, the team would revisit the answers.

“We’ll ask teammates if a certain player is doing all he can to achieve his goals,” said Ladouceur. “That’s some of the most powerful work we do with the kids. We get them to be a mirror for each other.”

In 2003, Ladouceur’s football program was the subject of a book, “When the Game Stands Tall,” written by a Contra Costa Times reporter. In 2014, the book was made into a movie, starring Jim Caviezel as “Coach Lad.”

“After coming out of the theater, I told my husband, ‘I’m going to bring him to Stanislaus County; we have to have him come to Stanislaus County,’ ” said Judy Kindle, executive director of Sierra Vista Child and Family Services. “I was so moved by his story.”

Ladouceur, 61, closed his run at DLS with four consecutive state titles, a mark that Central Catholic tied this season with its 16-0 run to the state’s Open Division Small Schools championship. Players and coaches from Central Catholic spent a day observing a De La Salle practice in 2012, the year the Raiders started their state title streak.

“Now it’s like they’re part of our family,” said Ladouceur, who serves as an assistant to successor and DLS grad Justin Alumbaugh. “We follow them every week, and we were able to watch them play before our (state title) game (in Sacramento).

Ladouceur acknowledged the Central Catholic players and coaches in the audience, saying they helped put him at ease as he spoke in front of the large crowd.

Spotted in the crowd, in addition to Raiders football coach Roger Canepa and boys basketball coach Mike Wilson, were football coaches Mike Parsons (Modesto Christian), Don Wallace (Modesto), Rob Cozart (Patterson), Grant Genasci (Johansen) and Tim Garcia (Davis) and many of their players.

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 8:05 PM with the headline "Legendary De La Salle football coach speaks at mentoring summit in Turlock."