ONE GREAT GAME On October 6, 2001, two California high school football teams played in what turned out to be the first, and perhaps the only, national championship high school football game. The De La Salle Spartans and the Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits came into the season as the two top-ranked teams in high school football, according to USA Today polls and various sports polls throughout the country. Wallace, who played for Poly in the late 1960s, skillfully chronicles the stories of these two football powerhouses. De La Salle, which sported the nation's longest winning streak at 113 games, is an all-male, predominantly white, Catholic high school in the wealthy northern California suburb of Concord. Long Beach Poly is an urban, inner-city high school with tremendous racial diversity, whose more famous graduates include Cameron Diaz and Snoop Dogg. With his journalist's eye, Wallace (author of the novel Hot Water) interviews the coaches and players of each team as they prepare for the 2001 season and the game that became known as the national championship. In a fast-paced narrative, he gives a play-by-play account of the game. Although Poly seems to have a physical edge over De La Salle, the latter keep their winning streak alive with a 29-15 win.

WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL What follows are excerpts from "When the Game Stands Tall: The story of the De La Salle Spartans and Football's Longest Winning Streak" (Frog, Ltd.). The book, by Times columnist Neil Hayes, takes readers inside the locker room and into emotional team meetings during the 2002 season as the most fragile team since The Streak began navigates the most daunting schedule in school history. The book also traces the people, events and controversies that have shaped history's most successful high school football program and answers the question surrounding the program for nearly two decades: How do they do it? Loss to Pittsburg ended one streak, but begat The Streak The record books will forever indicate that The Streak began with a 34-14 season-opening victory over Merced High School in 1992. The record books weren't in on the true ground floor. The greatest winning streak in football history was born during a confrontation in the weight room on a suffocating summer day several months after the loss to Pittsburg High in 1991. De La Salle football: Beyond the wins The package was on Bob Ladouceur's desk on Thanksgiving morning. Players and coaches regarded the brown shirt box wrapped in brown packaging paper curiously. "To the De La Salle coaches" was written on one side; below it, the words "Happy Thanksgiving." Inside was a framed letter from former De La Salle player Jonathan Kirkham along with the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal he had recently been awarded. "Oh my God," assistant coach and athletic director Terry Eidson says. "He gave us his medal. He didn't tell us he got a medal, the little (expletive)." Coaching turns out to be a fit for Ladouceur Bob Ladouceur graduated from San Jose State University in 1976 with a degree in criminal justice. He wanted to help troubled kids, maybe become a probation officer. He spent eighteen months counseling troubled, mostly delinquent kids at juvenile hall, but he spent more time managing files than teens. He kept seeing the same faces being recycled through the system.

De La Salle High School in Concord, California, is home to perhaps the greatest dynasty in sports history. At age 23, Coach Bob Ladouceur launched a legend, "The Streak," with no teaching or head-coaching experience, and with his teams amassed the highest winning percentage in all of football history with 138 consecutive victories. This book takes readers behind the scenes, closely following individual players, as Ladouceur guides his team through the most daunting schedule in school history, the 2002 season. Numerous interviews with major-league coaches such as Bill Walsh, Steve Mariucci, and John Gruden show the depth of respect accorded to Ladouceur and his methods and philosophies. Written with full cooperation from the coach and including dozens of photographs, this book is perfect for anyone interested in the factors behind phenomenal team success.

 

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