When the Game Stands Tall, Special Movie Edition Read online

  Praise for When the Game Stands Tall:

  “Some guys are just coaches. Bob is one of those guys. He’s like John Wooden, Joe Torre, or Bill Walsh. They can coach any sport at any level.”

  — John Madden, broadcaster and Hall of Fame coach

  “Neil Hayes has given us a riveting chronicle of the greatest high school football program in history. Emotional, inspiring, dramatic, and action-packed.”

  — Thomas Carter, director of When the Game Stands Tall

  “Exceptional. A story about brotherhood and the endless fight to achieve greatness in all aspects of life.”

  — Alexander Ludwig

  “Coach Bob Ladouceur’s ability to communicate, teach, and relate is unparalleled. He strikes a nerve with me every time I hear him speak.”

  — Jon Gruden, Monday Night Football analyst and former coach of the Oakland Raiders and Tampa Bay Buccaneers

  “A timeless and universal story about character, hard work, and love.”

  — Steve Bersch, President, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions

  “Neil Hayes beautifully captures the essence of Bob Ladouceur and his style of coaching … As a parent, I learned more from this than any other book, especially in the areas of listening and compassion.”

  — Laura Dern

  “I’ve never seen a better coached team at any level. I watch De La Salle play and I can’t believe it’s a high school football game. Bob is as fine a coach as the game has ever seen.”

  — Bill Walsh, Hall of Famer and former coach of the San Francisco 49ers

  “Winning was merely a byproduct of Bob Ladouceur’s teachings and philosophy, and his team won more games in a row than any other team, in any sport … ever. Clearly Bob has something to teach us all.”

  — Michael Chiklis

  “Human vulnerability gets equal time with athletic invincibility throughout Hayes’s book.”

  — San Francisco Chronicle

  “This book will be extremely useful to anybody who coaches young men or women. Bob’s an amazing man. De La Salle is an amazing program. A story we need to read.”

  — Tony La Russa, former manager of the Chicago White Sox, Oakland Athletics, and St. Louis Cardinals

  “A road map for developing great teams and great young men. A must read for any coach or parent who wants to help kids reach their true potential.”

  — David Zelon, producer of When the Game Stands Tall

  “Remarkable.”

  — Pro Football Weekly

  “De La Salle is the ultimate high school football program in this country, there’s no doubt about that. It’s unbelievable how they keep winning.”

  — Steve Mariucci, NFL Network analyst and former coach of the Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers

  eBook ISBN: 978-1-58394-806-4

  Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-58394-805-7

  Copyright © 2003, 2005, 2014 by Neil Hayes. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

  Published by North Atlantic Books

  P.O. Box 12327

  Berkeley, California 94712

  Color photos following this page by Tracy Bennett © 2014 CTMG. All rights reserved.

  B/W photos by Bob Larson; published by permission of the Contra Costa Times

  Book design by Brad Greene

  Printed in the United States of America

  When the Game Stands Tall: The Story of the De La Salle Spartans and Football’s Longest Winning Streak is sponsored by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences, a nonprofit educational corporation whose goals are to develop an educational and cross-cultural perspective linking various scientific, social, and artistic fields; to nurture a holistic view of arts, sciences, humanities, and healing; and to publish and distribute literature on the relationship of mind, body, and nature.

  North Atlantic Books’ publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, call 800–733–3000 or visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com.

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

  Hayes, Neil, 1967-

  When the game stands tall : the story of the De la Salle Spartans and football’s longest winning streak / Neil Hayes; foreword by Tony La Russa; preface by John Madden; photos by Bob Larson.—Revised edition.

  pages cm

  Includes index.

  1. De La Salle High School (Concord, Calif.)—Football. 2. Football—California—Concord—History. I. Title.

  GV958.D4H39 2014

  796.332’630979463—dc23

  v3.1

  For Charlee, Nick, and Riley

  and in memory of T.K., the gentle giant, who will forever

  be an inspiration to us all

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Foreword

  Prologue

  Introduction

  1 A Monument to Understatement

  2 Behind the Oleanders

  3 1971: The De La Salle Experiment

  4 A Deflating Debut

  5 1970s: Chewed Up and Spit Out

  6 A Friday Night in Paradise

  7 1978: A Controversial Hire

  8 A Prayer for Cameron Colvin

  9 1979: Inauguration

  10 One Step Up, Two Steps Back

  11 1980: The Spirit of Brother Laurence

  12 The Power of Commitment

  13 1982: Terry Eidson Fills the Void

  14 Judgment Day

  15 The 1980s: A Nemesis Named Shag

  16 Redemption

  17 1986–87: Collision Course

  18 Public vs. Private

  19 1991: Pittsburg’s Claim to Fame

  20 Homecoming

  21 The Recruiting Controversy: Shades of Gray

  22 Foes and Neighbors

  23 1992: The Streak Begins

  24 A Weakness Becomes a Strength

  25 1998: Mater Dei Threatens The Streak

  26 A Headfirst Slide into History

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Index

  Foreword

  By John Madden

  I have long looked upon De La Salle’s unbelievable winning streak with curiosity. I, like everybody else, wanted to know how they did it. I wanted to learn.

  People overlook high school football, focusing on college football or NFL football. They don’t think they can learn from the high school game, but I know how difficult it is to win two games in a row. How can a team win 151 games in a row?

  I mean, 151 straight games, with different players and different eras, and different times, and different opponents. De La Salle took on all comers, too. That’s the amazing thing. It has never been done before, and I don’t think it will ever be done again. It’s one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of the sport. You want to say, “How in the heck did they do that?” I think that’s what we all want to know.

  The answer is what makes the story of Bob Ladouceur and De La Salle High School, in my opinion, one of the greatest football stories ever told. There’s a lot more to it than X’s and O’s. Maybe that’s what makes it so special.

  There are lessons to be learned in this book, for everyone. The lessons are life lessons—about commitment, dedication, responsibility, friendship, brotherhood
. And what you learn from those lessons is much bigger and more important than The Streak.

  You realize it’s not just about the players or coaches. It’s about community. It’s about religious beliefs. It’s about everything that’s important in life, and it’s about the combination of those things. You’ll be left wondering whether that combination will ever be put together by anyone again.

  Following De La Salle over the years—before The Streak, and during The Streak—I knew there was something special going on. I knew there was something more than just a football coach and football players. I knew this was a story that needed to be told.

  Then this book came out. I read it. My wife read it. My sons, who coach freshman football, read it. The story was so inspiring, the message so important, that my son Joe and I decided to make a documentary on De La Salle football, in order to share the story with as many others as possible. 151: The Greatest Streak aired on ESPN in December 2004. This book was the blueprint for that documentary.

  Success over a long period of time is something special. It’s something we all strive for, whether it’s success in life, success as a family, success in raising children, success in business, success in coaching. But how do you do it?

  When you read the book, or watch the documentary, you’ll find out how it can be done. I really believe that. I think you will understand this story, whether you’ve ever played sports or not, whether you’re interested in sports or not.

  There are lessons in this book for everyone. And the most important lessons don’t have anything to do with football, or coaching, or winning.

  Prologue

  A cast and crew rarely gawk. This was Hollywood, after all, or at least Hollywood South, as New Orleans was being called while multiple movies were filmed there during the spring and summer of 2013. But when De La Salle High School football coaches Bob Ladouceur and Terry Eidson arrived at Isidore Newman High School, where Peyton and Eli Manning both played and where a scene from When the Game Stands Tall was being shot, they could not ignore the turned heads and pointed fingers. They felt the eyes upon them as they strolled across the field.

  Well-known actors Jim Caviezel, Michael Chiklis, Laura Dern, and Alexander Ludwig may have been on hand, but it was the teachers who built De La Salle into the most celebrated high school football program in history who were the celebrities on this night.

  The real “Coach Lad” was asked if it was surreal to watch a movie be made that is based on his life. Always in character, he shrugged before answering, “I haven’t really thought about it.”

  From the moment I arrived in New Orleans I had been asked a similar question: What is it like to have the dream come true of your book being turned into a movie?

  The truth is, I’d never dreamed that big.

  I’d wanted to capture the essence of the most unique football program I had ever seen. Ladouceur allowed me complete access during the 2002 season and I wanted to repay the De La Salle football community by fairly representing a program making national headlines while compiling what would become a national-record 151-game winning streak.

  The possibility of a movie never entered my mind—and certainly not Lad’s. It wasn’t until I showed up on set for the first day of filming that I let myself believe it.

  It took Lad even longer.

  “The person on this campus least interested in this movie is the person it’s about,” Eidson told me weeks before, which added to my anxiety. In fact, Eidson and I had to persuade a reluctant Ladouceur to visit the set. Lad never sought fame or publicity, but here he was, watching a movie being made based on his life, which would undoubtedly change his life.

  What had I gotten him into?

  I later realized I had nothing to worry about. Lost in the blur of a demanding shooting schedule and the surreal experience of seeing actors you have watched perform for years play people you have known even longer was a truth I had overlooked: everybody on set respected these two old friends and coaching partners, their program, and their story as much as I did.

  Time and again, I was approached by prop masters, assistant directors, and stunt men absorbing teeth-rattling hits for the camera who said they wanted to work on the film because they fell in love with the story and because it was unlike any other football movie ever made.

  Producer David Zelon and I talked about it frequently during the three-plus years he refused to take “no” for an answer while bringing De La Salle football to the big screen. If you approach a project with as much humility, sincerity, and integrity as Bob and Terry did in creating high school football’s greatest dynasty, it often takes on a momentum all its own.

  For example, Zelon was serving as the strength-and-conditioning coach for his son’s team at Santa Monica High School when he discovered my book gift-wrapped in the coaches’ office. He didn’t learn until later that his wife, Nancy, had purchased it for the booster club, which had presented it to the previous coach as a welcoming gift. That coach hadn’t even unwrapped it, let alone read it. Zelon did both and thus began a journey that was unlikely even by Hollywood standards.

  I had long thought Caviezel would be a great candidate to play Ladouceur. Caviezel’s father played for legendary UCLA coach John Wooden, whose philosophy is similar to Ladouceur’s. Jim played basketball at a Catholic high school before launching his acting career, so he understood two critical components to the story.

  Caviezel had De La Salle documentaries playing on a loop in his trailer to help him channel Lad. Not only was he determined to use the actual play calls and terminology De La Salle coaches use, but he wanted to understand the strategies behind the words.

  When I was introduced to Laura Dern on my second day on set, she told me how her father, legendary actor Bruce Dern, read my book when it was first published.

  You want surreal? How about being flattered by Hollywood royalty?

  Michael Chiklis loved telling stories about his high school coaches in Andover, Massachusetts. Chiklis was the ideal yang to Caviezel’s yin, just like Terry and Bob in real life. Chiklis understood Terry’s character and energy from the start. He knew innately how the two old friends needle each other like an old married couple.

  The family atmosphere nurtured by Lad and Terry and De La Salle was present on set. We were shooting at a New Orleans-area hospital when former De La Salle star and current NFL running back Maurice Jones-Drew arrived for a cameo. Later that day, I discovered Maurice helping 13-year-old actor Gavin Casalegno, who plays Michael Ladouceur in the movie, with his math homework.

  “No, Gavin, X can’t equal two,” Jones-Drew explained patiently.

  A delightful group of young actors led by Ludwig, Ser’Darius Blain, and Joe Massingill were prepared to deliver powerful performances every time they arrived on set. They lived in the same hotel, trained together, and hung out together to better understand the real-life bonds they portrayed in the film.

  They kept talking about how they wished they could put on the pads and play for real. “No, you don’t,” I kept reminding them. I had spent time admiring how second-unit director Allan Graf and his son Derek coordinated the football scenes. Father and son are both former starting offensive linemen for USC, and they made sure the football footage ranks among the best ever shot. Their stunt men were former college and pro players with extensive résumés. The actors wouldn’t have stood a chance.

  Director Thomas Carter summoned me one day. “Would Lad wear a belt?” he wanted to know, which shows you the attention to detail he demanded. Carter was adamant about making sure the script accurately reflected the real-life characters.

  The filmmakers took creative license in moving the 2001 showdown against Long Beach Poly to the 2004 season, for example, and dramatized other characters and storylines that did not appear in the book, but it was done with pure motives and honest intentions.

  I always wished my son, Nick, could have played for De La Salle. As it turns out, Nick is not a football player. He’s a filmmaker, which turned
the time we spent in New Orleans working together on the movie into memories that will last two lifetimes.

  Chiklis and Eidson quickly realized they both love sports and heavy metal music. They were inseparable on set. Caviezel and Ladouceur also discovered they had much in common. Caviezel stopped by De La Salle to spend time with Bob and Terry while driving from Los Angeles to Washington after the production wrapped.

  I’ve always maintained that the best thing about writing When the Game Stands Tall is the relationships it forged. That will never change. It’s my sincere hope that the friendships that began the night Bob and Terry visited the set will be as enduring.

  Neil Hayes

  January 2014

  INTRODUCTION

  His offensive linemen were confused at halftime. They sat on narrow wooden benches in the locker room, dirt and grass from their cleats scattered across the cement floor. The opposition’s defense was shifting and shooting gaps, making it difficult for De La Salle players to execute their assignments. This wasn’t something they had anticipated or practiced against, and it made them tentative and less precise.

  Now they wanted to know what to do, how to adjust. They looked to their coach standing before them through wide eyes, begging for his wisdom, his guidance. They sat there in expectant silence, waiting for words they would never hear.

  “Why do I always have to be the problem-solver?” Bob Ladouceur asked. “Group problem-solving is a skill you will use your whole life. You guys figure it out.” With that, the most successful high school football coach in history walked away, leaving them to discover the solution on their own. This scene has occurred frequently during Ladouceur’s tenure at De La Salle High School, and it’s just one reason why this coach and this program are so unique.

  De La Salle’s winning streak stood at 125 consecutive games when I began this project, and it would grow to a national-record 151 in a row. But that’s not what compelled me to write the story of this man, this school, and the nation’s most successful high school football program. It was moments like this that convinced me that this story must be told.