"The Finest Athletic Leader I Have Ever Met"

Soon-to-be Hall of Fame baseball manager Tony La Russa said of him: "He is the finest athletic leader I have ever met in my life, and I admire him to the nth degree." Yet, few outside of the Bay Area know his name.

Football coach Bob Ladouceur is retiring from De La Salle High School after 34 seasons.

Ladouceur took over at De La Salle in 1979 as a 25-year-old with no head coaching experience. His teams have gone on to win five mythical national titles, five state championships and 28 North Coast Section titles, including the past 21. De La Salle hasn't lost to a Northern California team since 1991.

Ladouceur, who also teaches religious studies at De La Salle, has coached several players who have gone on to NFL careers, including Amani Toomer, Maurice Jones-Drew, Derek Landri and D.J. Williams.

But getting the most out of players with far less talent is considered to be his greatest gift. [snip]

A movie on Ladouceur and the De La Salle football program starring Jim Caviezel is currently in the works. The film is based on Neil Hayes' book, "When the Game Stands Tall," which chronicled the 2002 season.

Coach Ladouceur retires with 399 wins, a total that is meaningful not only for its magnitude (an average of 12 wins per year over 34 years) but also for what it reveals about a man who is not interested in hyping his record to a win #400.

He will also be the second Bay Area high school coach about whom a movie will be made. (Charlie Wedemeyer, who coached at Los Gatos High for nearly a decade while suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease, died in 2010.)

At 58, Mr Ladouceur is a bit young to be fully retired, and we suspect that he's not done teaching. We look forward to seeing his second act.  © 2013 Stephen Yuen