The Soul of a Sports Machine

Attention must be paid when someone upends the laws of competitive gravity. What you should know about Bob Ladouceur is this.

On December 7, 1991, the De La Salle Spartans lost a football game, for the North Coast Section championship. The next season, they stopped losing -- period. No losses at all, nada, zilch. Since then, Coach Ladouceur has led his team to 11 straight unbeaten seasons: 138 victories, 0 defeats.

A sports junkie will recognize that this is a pretty special streak -- longer than the pro-football record of 17, the college-football record of 47, the 88 consecutive games won by John Wooden's UCLA basketball teams, and 400-meter hurdler Edwin Moses's 107 consecutive finals victories. In fact, it is quite possibly the world's longest streak at any level, in any sport.

But leave the stats to the guys on ESPN. Ladouceur's accomplishment is best savored by those far removed from the halcyon days of high-school gridiron glory. Anyone sweating over the realities of running a business in today's environment will relish how this coach does it.

For one thing, De La Salle is small (1,000 students), with almost 100% "employee" (read: student) turnover every four years. It's located in Concord, California, far from the madding chic of San Francisco, out in the sprawl of bedroom communities. The majority of Concord's citizens do not turn out for De La Salle's games; the private parochial school (of the Christian Brothers order) is resented by some vocal residents. Nor is the area an athletic hotbed.

And yet, year in and year out, the Spartans keep winning, all the while continually seeking higher levels of competition despite their annual changeover of players, who are called "undersized" and "less talented" every year and are often disparaged by their elite rivals.

In other words, here is a model for all of those who are outmanned, underfunded, and outgunned -- which fits a lot of us these days. So pipe down and listen up, because you'll want to take a page from the Ladouceur playbook. You're getting a blueprint for, yes, a sports machine, but one with the soul of a great business.

The System

Start with process. In 1979, Ladouceur sized up his few small, dispirited players, who hadn't had a winning season in the school's history. "My approach was all about process," he says. "I didn't have any long-term goals. I just said to myself, 'Let's teach these guys how to win and what it takes to win, and then make it a day-to-day process.' "

Create small victories.

Facing his players, Ladouceur said, " 'All I ask is this: by the time each practice ends, for you to be better than you were two or three hours ago.' Whether it was in the weight room or on the field, I asked them to walk off a little bit stronger, to understand the game a little more, or at least to have the plays that we were running down more."

Share the pains (and gains).

Ladouceur put his players on a grueling year-round strength and conditioning program. It was a way to change the culture, to weed out those predisposed to quitting, and to build a team bond. School legend has it that he sweated and lifted alongside his early teams (he was only 25 when he took the job). After 25 years, Ladouceur no longer lifts and runs with the boys, but he still shows an intense, existential concern for getting things right "not just mechanically or athletically," he says, "but in a spiritual sense."

Win with what you have. In business, as in football, size matters and talent makes a difference. But in a team sport such as football, as in business, size and talent gaps can be offset by intelligence and quickness. The mistake is to try to meet an opponent's strength where you are weak.

De La Salle's talent pool was thin, so Ladouceur installed two offensive plays, the "option" and the "veer," both of which don't require a top-flight quarterback, giant linemen, or large, fast running backs. The option depends on misdirection: The quarterback fakes to three running backs on every play and always has the choice to keep it himself or pass.

Trust your team, but help them to become trustworthy.

The veer offensive requires the quarterback to make the decision to run or hand off the ball even faster. In business terms, Ladouceur delegates to his line manager. This means trusting players to do what is required.

Trust isn't automatic. Coach Ladouceur doesn't just throw people into tight situations and expects them to prevail. " I try to be smart about it," he says dryly. "If someone doesn't have the speed or talent level, I always think they can make up for it by being smart, by being cagey, and by playing with common sense."

He doesn't just go by faith. He expects those qualities to be demonstrated in practice. For instance, the quarterback must run play after play to make sure that he knows his options cold. "The kids think I'm difficult to please," he admits. "But the flip side is, they think I believe in them. Which I do."