9781422283035

the Super 25 (e.g., De La Salle, John Curtis) have taken to regularly playing games early in the season versus out- of-state opponents, often playing such games on national television. In 2015 Bishop Gorman, a Catholic school based in Las Vegas, Nevada, played opponents from Arizona, Utah, Washington, New Jer- sey, and California (twice). The year be- fore, the Gaels, rated No. 1 in the nation by USA Today , hosted No. 2 St. John Bos- co of Bellflower, Calif., on a Friday evening, and the game aired on ESPN. Rarely does a college sport outside of football and basketball air on the main ESPN chan- nel, but this high school football game did. (Gorman won 34–31.) Private Versus Public Valor Christian School, a private high school located in Highlands Ranch, Colo., opened in 2007 and did not have a senior

De La Salle In September of 1992, De La Salle High in

Concord, Calif., began the longest win streak in the his- tory of high school football: 151 games—or more than twice as long as the previ- ous record of 72 games. The architect of those wins was Bob Ladouceur, who took over the program in 1979 at age 25. The Catholic all-boys school, which was founded in 1965, had never had a winning football sea- son before Ladouceur was named coach. During Ladouceur’s 34 seasons, the Spartans won 17 state championships. He retired in 2012. His lifetime .934 winning percentage is a national high school record.

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