De_La_Salle_High_School_(Concord,_California)

De La Salle High School (Concord, California)

De La Salle High School (Concord, California)

Private college-prep day school in Concord, California, United States

De La Salle High School is a private Catholic school for boys run by the De La Salle Brothers in Concord, California.[5] It is located in the Diocese of Oakland. The school was founded in 1965.

Quick Facts Location, Coordinates ...
Students from De La Salle High School meet with Mark DeSaulnier in Washington, D.C. in 2020.

De La Salle currently enrolls 1,029 students, and roughly 99% of each graduating class goes on to attend a university or college. It is home to the Spartans, the athletic varsity teams of the school, and its school colors are green and silver. The school motto is "Les Hommes De Foi", French for "Men Of Faith," which is based on the order's Latin motto "Signum Fidei".[6]

Athletics

Baseball

The De La Salle baseball team as of 2023 had won six straight North Coast Section (NCS) Championships, and five of the prior eight EBAL Championships.[7] It won the inaugural CIF Division 1 NorCal Championships in 2022, and again in 2023.[7] In 2015-16 it was 25-3 and was ranked second in the nation.[8]

In 2017-18 it was 26-4 and was ranked second in the nation.[8] As a sophomore in 2018 future San Francisco Giants pitcher Kyle Harrison was 9-1 with a 1.17 ERA.[9] He was named EBAL Pitcher of the Year, a 2018 MaxPreps National All-American, and Cal-Hi Sports All-State Underclass.[9] In 2018-19 it was 29-1 and was ranked second in the nation.[8] As a junior in 2019 Harrison was 10–0 with a 1.26 ERA for the Spartans, with 103 strikeouts in 61 innings, and also played first base.[9][10]

Connor “Bear” Harrison, Kyle Harrison's younger brother, in May 2023 was named Cal-Hi Sports North Coast Section Baseball Player of the Year after batting .419 while playing catcher his junior year; he also played first base and pitched as a closer.[11][12] In his senior season in 2023, Bear batted .404 and was named first team all-state and the Bay Area News Group Player of the Year.[13]

Football

De La Salle High School holds the national record 151-game winning streak spanning from 1992 to 2004. The streak occurred under the leadership of Bob Ladouceur, who began coaching at the school in 1979. It ended when they were defeated on September 4, 2004, by Bellevue High School (Washington), outside Seattle.[14] De La Salle finished the 2007 football season 13–0 and as state champions. In 2009, De La Salle defeated Crenshaw 28–14 to win the state title again. In 2010, De La Salle defeated Servite, ranked #7 in the nation, 48–8, to win the state title game for a second straight year. De La Salle finished the season 14–0 and ranked #1 in the nation by Maxpreps.[15]

During the winning streak, De La Salle was named national champion in seven different years; once by ESPN (1994), five times by USA Today (1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003), and once by the National Sports News Service (1999). The Spartans have been named national champions by ESPNRISE.com (formerly Student Sports) six times, including four straight years (2000–03).[16] They have also been honored as the top team in California 19 times (1992, 1994–2003, 2007, 2009–2012, 2014–2015) and competed in 25 California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) North Coast Section (NCS) championship games with 23 victories (12 of which were attained during the 151-game winning streak).[16] For the 2008–2009 school year, De La Salle was ranked the 18th best high school football team in the country by USA Today, the 37th by ESPNRISE, the 19th by MaxPreps, and the 14th by Sports Illustrated.[17]

In somewhat recent years, the team has won the California Open Division State Championships six times (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, and 2015). They have appeared in the Open Division state title game every year from the founding of the division in 2008 until 2019. Prior, they had competed in Division I, where they were the 2007 State Champions and the 2006 and 2008 runner-up. They have won the North Coast Section championships every year since 1992, with the league's restructuring. From 1991 to 2021, they had a streak of 318 games without a loss when playing Northern California schools (going 316–0–2). This ended on September 10, 2021, when they lost to St. Francis High School of Mountain View. The Lancers, coached by St. Francis alum Greg Calcagno, beat De La Salle in the closing seconds of the game by the score of 31-28.[18][19]

Campus ministry and spirituality

In the minds of the Brothers, their purpose "is to give a human and Christian education to the young, especially the poor, according to the ministry which the Church has entrusted to it." [20] De La Salle Concord sponsors Nativity school in Shinara, Eritrea. Students have the opportunity to participate in many retreats and immersion experiences throughout their time at the school, including a "Ven a Ver" program (Come to See), which involves spending five days with the disadvantaged people of Salinas or Tijuana.[21]

In media

The De La Salle football team was the subject of two 2003 books. One Great Game: Two Teams, Two Dreams, in the First Ever National Championship High School Football Game, by Don Wallace, follows the undefeated 2001 season and national championship showdown with Long Beach Polytechnic High School,[22] and splits its focus between the schools. When the Game Stands Tall was written by Contra Costa Times sportswriter Neil Hayes, who followed the team for practices, games, and meetings during its undefeated 2002 season. The foreword was written by former Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa. The 2014 movie When the Game Stands Tall is based on Neil Hayes' book.

Notable alumni

American football

Baseball

Basketball

  • Markus Barry, professional basketball shooting guard
  • Drew Barry, professional basketball shooting guard
  • Jon Barry, professional basketball shooting guard
  • Brent Barry, professional basketball shooting guard
  • Scooter Barry, professional basketball shooting guard

Other sports

Other

Notes

  1. [1]
    "De la Salle High School (2023-24 Profile) - Concord, CA". 24 December 2023.
  2. [2]
    name=" WASC-Accrediting Commission for Schools ">WASC-ACS. "WASC-Accrediting Commission for Schools". Archived from the original on 2009-08-14. Retrieved 2009-06-05.
  3. [3]
    "Winton Oracle - de la Salle High School".
  4. [4]
    "Tuition and Fees".
  5. [5]
    https://delasalle.org/. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. [6]
    Hayes, Neil (2005). When The Game Stands Tall (English). Frog Books. ISBN 9781583941300. Retrieved 2009-07-10.
  7. [7]
    "Baseball - De La Salle High School". www.dlshs.org.
  8. [8]
    "Teams - De La Salle Spartans Baseball (Concord, CA)". www.maxpreps.com.
  9. [9]
    Tony Hicks (April 5, 2019). "Kyle Harrison: De La Salle Baseball's Kyle Cool; With Unshakeable Poise, Hard-Throwing Kyle Harrison Is Dominating Opposing Batters And A Big Part Of The Spartans' 9-1 Start To 2019". SportStars Magazine.
  10. [10]
    Dalton Johnson (June 22, 2020). "Giants pick Kyle Harrison earned Chris Sale comparison at de la Salle". NBC Sports.
  11. [11]
    "There's another Harrison with big-league dreams". 810 The Spread. May 12, 2023.
  12. [12]
    Stella Hong (April 13, 2023). "Bear Harrison brings De La Salle baseball to next level". West Coast Preps.
  13. [13]
    Tennis, Mark (July 11, 2023). "All-State Baseball: First Team". Cal-Hi Sports.
  14. [14]
    Lawlor, Christopher (2004-09-05). "De La Salle's 151-game win streak ends". USA Today. Retrieved 2004-09-05.
  15. [15]
    "High School Football Rankings". 27 December 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-12-27. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  16. [16]
    "Ladouceur: No secret ingredients to success". ESPN.com. September 26, 2008.
  17. [17]
    FB2008-Polls Archived 2009-06-07 at the Wayback Machine
  18. [18]
    Sabedra, Darren (2021-09-11). "Stunner! St. Francis ends De La Salle's 30-year unbeaten football streak against regional opponents". The Mercury News. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
  19. [19]
    Stephens, Mitch (2021-09-11). "'Really, really unbelievable': How St. Francis ended De La Salle's 318-game streak". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2021-09-13.
  20. [20]
    "De La Salle Educational Mission". Archived from the original (English) on 2008-05-09. Retrieved 2008-07-03.
  21. [21]
    "De La Salle High School Campus Ministry" (English).
  22. [22]
    Shipnuck, Allan (October 15, 2001). "Two Is Better Than One: No. 2 De La Salle beat No. 1 Long Beach Poly to extend its 10-year winning streak". Sports Illustrated. Archived from the original on 2008-10-12.
  23. [23]
    Biggins, Greg (22 September 2011). "Amani Toomer among top Spartans". espn.com. ESPN. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  24. [24]
    "De La Salle High grad Mike Miller is a hit with the Class-A Salem Red Sox". Contra Costa Times. July 29, 2014. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
  25. [25]
    "Royals sign top draft pick A.J. Puckett, who battled back from brain surgery". Kansas City Start. Retrieved November 29, 2016.

Further reading

  • Hayes, Neil (2003). When the Game Stands Tall: The Story of the De La Salle Spartans and Football's Longest Winning Streak. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books. ISBN 1-58394-086-3.
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