There is a commonality shared by three Bay Area head coaches who will lead their football teams into the state championships this weekend.
The trio started at De La Salle, first as players and then as assistant coaches.
Victor Galli moved on to Pittsburg, Patrick Walsh left for Serra and Justin Alumbaugh eventually succeeded the coach they all played under at De La Salle, Bob Ladouceur.
Galli was a receiver and defensive back on De La Salle’s first North Coast Section championship team in 1982. Ten years later, Walsh’s senior class started the program’s national-record streak of 151 consecutive victories. Alumbaugh later contributed to the streak before graduating in 1998. After coaching under Ladouceur for a decade, he took over the program in 2013.
Now, the three coaches and their teams will bring special storylines into the state finals this weekend at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo.
— Pittsburg’s 1-A championship game Saturday against Liberty-Bakersfield will be Galli’s last as head coach. He announced before the playoffs that his 21st season would be his final one.
— De La Salle’s 1-AA title game Friday against Lincoln-San Diego will be the culmination of a season filled with injuries and adversity that dropped the Spartans’ record to 3-3 before the team found its stride.
— Serra’s Open Division championship game Saturday will be daunting as the Padres face the nation’s top-ranked team, St. John Bosco-Bellflower. But no matter what unfolds, Serra — for the first time in Walsh’s 22 seasons at the San Mateo school — was truly the No. 1 team in Northern California.
Ladouceur plans to watch from the comfort of his home.
Monday, he spent a few minutes with the Bay Area News Group to speak about his three former players and the job they have done.
Here is our conversation (edited for clarity and brevity):
BANG: You must be proud to see Patrick, Vic and Justin at the top of their profession.
Ladouceur: Absoultely. It makes me think back to when they were players with me. Just kind of a common thread that runs through all of them. Not just De La Salle, but all three of them had a passion for football. I really appreciated that about them. I don’t know what it is. It just kind of gets into your blood. That happened for me, too, when I was a young kid. Even before high school, I just had an infinity of passion for tackle football.
BANG: What advice did you give when they chose to coach?
Ladouceur: Justin was an easy transition. He coached the longest with me. I watched him every day coach and said, ‘Oh my God, this guy is a natural.’ Kids loved him. They’d do anything for him. That’s kind of what all three of them have. They have a certain connection with their kids that their kids want to do well for them. Not just for the school or for themselves. They respect these guys so much. As they hoist Vic up on their shoulders (after the NorCal final Saturday night), it’s that confirmation that we’ve wanted this for you. It’s not just for us. And I know they’re like that with Patrick, too. Patrick is like a father to those guys. (Ladouceur recalled listening to Walsh’s postgame address to his players after Serra lost in a state final in 2019). He had his kids kneeling down and congregating on the practice field right off the main field. I saw him over there and I wanted to walk over and hear what he has to say to these guys. So I did, and it was amazing. It was amazing how he affirmed those kids, told them how much he loved them and he’d do anything for them and this isn’t the end of our relationship. It was inspiring. I was like, ‘Holy mackerel.’ I was just so impressed.
BANG: Patrick is a master at motivating, no?
Ladouceur: I know. He’ll come in and get into you and then right when he’s done, he’ll hug you. (Laughs). It’s tough love in a lot of ways. I’ve watched Vic grow also throughout his career. He just got better and better and he understood more and more about the importance of his job and what effect he had on the kids. He was a really good pick for Pittsburg. Being from the city, growing up in that city, and his father, too. There is a lot of love for Pittsburg from a lot of the people who have lived there their whole lives. I thought they all supported Vic and they all really liked him a lot. They were really happy with the job he did, and I was, too. It’s a tough place to coach. There is a lot of distraction. I texted him, first to congratulate him and then to say you’ve had a great season and career. He went from a cocky kid from Pittsburg to a real mentor in your community. He always had it in him, always a good heart in him. When he took the reins, I kind of knew how he would be able to relate to all those kids and get them motivated. And that picture from (BANG’s Jose Carlos Fajardo on Saturday night) was pretty much the rubber stamp.
BANG: And what a weekend Justin had (De La Salle beat Folsom on Friday to reach a state final; his wife delivered their third child Saturday)
Ladouceur: His season was really up and down as far as like injuries. I’ve never seen a team devastated by injuries like he had this year. He had to do mix and match. He had to play a lot of young kids, too. He was starting freshmen and sophomores. It’s really tough to beat really stout teams with young kids like that. But he said they all scraped and scratched and did their jobs to the best of their ability. I texted all three of them and said I want a clean sweep, although I think Patrick will need a miracle. (laughs). That would be a book-story-type of thing.
BANG: Any tips for Patrick?
Ladouceur: It’s hard. Every game has its own ebbs and flows and you just don’t know. It’s tough to go up against a team like that. You’re basically like, ‘Let’s hang in there and hopefully we can win it in the end or something if we could just keep it close.’ They’re not going to shut these guys down. They’re going to move the football. No doubt. But Patrick, he gets those guys fired up. I know they’re going to scratch and scrape for everything they get, and they won’t stop until the final whistle. That’s just how he is. His teams mirror the kind of coach he is and the kind of player he was. Talk about if you had a child that you’d want him to play for somebody, he’d be one of them, for sure. All three of them I would be happy with my son playing for those guys.
Source: www.mercurynews.com