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Still Standing Tall: East Bay Football by Jay Randy Gordon, The MARINsider
Coach Bob Ladouceur (1st row, bottom right), filmmaker Thomas Carter (2nd row, 3rd from the right), and the principles in 'When The Game Stands Tall'. photo: courtesy T. Carter
WHEN A COACH BELIEVES A TEAM
can win and the players buy in to that, then there is a fighting chance. If not, forget it, just as in making movies.
Once the team believes, however, the coach or filmmaker can easily increase the preparation. Obviously, practice, conditioning, teamwork, collaboration, mindset and performance—BOTH in practice and "the game"—contribute greatly to the chance to win.
For over 35 years, Coach Bob Ladouceur massively prepared his high school football team in Concord, California—De La Salle High School, student population only 1,000—and they won an unprecedented 151 games in a row, including 12 years WITHOUT A LOSS, and 23 championships!
“When The Game Stands Tall”, the recent feature directed by veteran Thomas Carter, from a screenplay by Scott Marshall Smith ("Man of Honor", 2001), is not just about winning. In fact, it chronicles De La Salle's first loss in 12 years.
"It's not how hard you fall, it's how you get back up," is the film poster's tagline, see trailer here or catch it on iTunes (soon to be released on Blu-Ray).
Carter, who also does a lot of acting, is known for producing "Coach Carter" (2005)—no relation—but also about an East Bay high school sports team, this time in Richmond, again totally coincidental, he's from Texas. It stars Samuel L. Jackson. Before that one of his notable achievements was directing "Save the Last Dance" (2001), an interracial love story set in Chicago.
“When The Game Stands Tall” was adapted from a book of the same name from 2003 by Neil Hayes. a sportswriter for the Contra Costa Times newspaper. At the insistence of Coach Ladouceur, Hayes tirelessly followed the team through practices, games, and meetings during its undefeated 2002 season. The foreword was written by Baseball Hall of Fame Manager Tony La Russa.
The team, of actors, in 'When The Game Stands Tall'. photo: courtesy T. Carter
Although the high school is in Concord, California, Carter chose to shoot in New Orleans from late April 2013 through mid-June 2013 probably for fiduciary reasons; Louisiana has a strong tax-rebate policy for films made in-state.
In counterpoint to the many uplifting team practices and locker pep talks, as well as action-packed football sequences, the film depicts life setbacks. In addition to starting to lose, Coach Ladouceurr, played by Jim Caviezel, suffers a heart attack although he is aided by his wife, the inimitable, indomitable and award-winning Laura Dern. Meanwhile, star linebacker Terrance Kelly (Stephan James) is inexplicably murdered at a party in Richmond just before heading to college at the University of Oregon.
The team also loses its first two games in 2004, although the Spartans, as the team is called, revive spirits to face down their supreme rivals, Long Beach Poly, in the sweltering heat of Los Angeles.
In addition, the Spartans' star running back (Alexander Ludwig of the “The Hunger Games" ) faces unrelenting pressure from his overbearing father (Clancy Brown).
“One of the greatest football stories ever told,” claims John Madden, the legendary Oakland Raider coach and NFL broadcaster.
The real Coach Ladouceur told me, in a recent phone discussion, that he was “inspired by many coaches [he] played for through the years, including [his] Pop Warner coach Pete Villa.”
Coach Lad, as he was known, also subscribes to the heavy on the prep of current NFL coaches like the New England Patriots' Bill Belichick and Alabama coach Nick Saban. "These coaches know the game is played at a real physical level," he said.
“Success to us is understanding that where preparation meets opportunity, greatness can be achieved," Coach Lad says in the film. "Preparation for us is long, tedious, and difficult [because] the windows of opportunity are brief, short and intense."
Movie poster: 'When The Game Stands Tall'. photo: courtesy T. Carter
"Nobody—at least [not] our opponents—out work us. We prepare well and when ready, we welcome, not fear, our opportunities. This is the cornerstone upon which all achievement emanates—that boring, monotonous, nose-to-the-grindstone, hard work.”
Some coaches transcend their chosen sport, or sports in general, allowing you to sense the power of sports morality messaging, not only with that team but future teams in which those athletes might participate.
Ladouceur is not the fire-you-up, yelling-all-the-time coach. Indeed, he is a religious studies teacher and takes a more intellectual tact.
As well as playing the religion card, he gets his players to hold other players to their “commitment cards,” goals they set together on the field and the weight room but also civilian life.
“The football field is an extension of the classroom, and coaches view themselves as educators,” he told me.
Neil Hayes, the author, reported that, even during their massive winning streak, banners did not paper the De La Salle campus, an aspect of the story glammed up in the movie.
"Kids respect true humility and that you stand for something more than winning," Hayes quotes Coach Ladouceur in his book.
"I'm talking about how life should be lived and people should be treated. Kids see all that. It's a whole package of things that have nothing do with standing in front of a team with a piece of chalk."
The film released in theaters August 22, before the start of the football season, and on November 25 they released DVD with many extras and interviews with the real Coach Bob Ladouceur (making it well worth viewing, for that section alone, see here).
Multiple championships may not define a coach or the players but it says something about consistency of preparation: grueling practices, endless conditioning—dragging car tires, pounding blocking sleds—to be ready for the next game. The key was always "winning next game."
As the 1930's Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu noted, 'Make each scene good, then the film will be good."
“It was never about the [winning] streak,” Coach Lad said. If numbers were so important, he would have stayed head coach to win400, instead of stopping at 399 and passing the torch to his former player Justin Alumbaugh.
After 35 years as head coach at DLS, Coach Lad remains involved and helped quite a bit as the Spartans marched through their 2014 undefeated season.
Coach Lad, played by Jim Caviezel, in 'When The Game Stands Tall'. photo: courtesy T. Carter
A little bit of Hollywood emerged when in real life when Stanford University entertained the idea of having him join Bill Walsh's progressive staff coaching Stanford football, but he chose to remain at De La Salle.
“I look at myself as coach/teacher, teacher/coach. They are kind of interchangeable..." Coach Lad said when I asked about that, "I felt I wanted to try to give the kids an authentic team experience."
"At that age, I think kids are more receptive to change and looking at themselves objectively. They are willing to do and try different things and stretch themselves. That's why I wanted to stay [at De La Salle]. If I wanted to go for the money, I would have changed, but I wasn't in it for the money.“
Although athletes are often conditioned to believe that you have to do whatever it takes to battle to the top, according to Coach Lad, true victory comes with team, love, commitment, brotherhood, character, and your best effort.
The final message of the film is that in sports, as in life, you will not always be on top and that character is defined not just by the times of victory, but on how you handle adversity and times of defeat—something that filmmakers deal with often and the makers of “When The Game Stands Tall” in particular
The sports genre is crowded and the critics peppered the movie with mixed reviews and critiques of inspirational—read: cliché—sport moments.
But Director Carter garnered a 75% approval on RottenTomatoes.com and over 300,000 facebook likes, see FaceBook page,with many postings and blogs recommending "Stand Tall" to friends, families, teammates and coaches.
And of course clichés, tired old ideas portrayed in traditional ways, once they have been rejiggered can become innovative or brilliant.
So in addition to Carter's film and Hayes's book, Don Wallace contributed “One Great Game: Two Teams, Two Dreams, in the First Ever National Championship High School Football Game”, focusing on the undefeated 2001 season and showdown with Long Beach Polytechnic. Wallace also wrote thie article in Fast Company Magazine (2003), “The Soul of a Sports Machine.”
Football is a standardizing arena for America's male diversity. photo: courtesy T. Carter
What's Next for Coach Ladouceur ? The next game, of course. He still helps De La Salle on the sidelines. He also takes on speaking engagements, a solid speaker about team, commitment, preparation, religion, and life lessons.
Bob Ladouceur recently spoke in Las Vegas at Tony La Russa's ARF's 3rd Annual Leaders & Legends at the MGM Las Vegas and he is open to emails from interested parties, see
Based on a true story, “When The Game Stands Tall” is a ”walking inspiration” helping players and regular people—like filmmakers—get inspired: by themselves, god and others to get prepared, give your all and get the most of life.
By the way, De La Salle is 12-0 again right now. They just won 45-17 on November 28th, and the await another California Interscholastic Foundation game next week.