CLASH OF THE TITANS

Bob Ladouceur, football coach at Concord De La Salle High, was in his customary spot directly in front of the big-screen television, reviewing tape of his team’s most recent victory, when he saw one of his linebackers make a sloppy tackle.

Suddenly, the coach barked to the players gathered around him: “You’re going to have to tackle better than this! Because I’ll tell you what, that guy from Long Beach Poly--you’ll be grabbing thin air!”

Two days earlier, De La Salle had stretched its national-record winning streak to 115 games by routing Santa Ana Mater Dei, 34-6. Four days later, the Spartans would play Mountain View St. Francis.

But Ladouceur had his mind on an opponent 360 miles away--one his team wouldn’t face for another two weeks.

Long Beach Poly.

And who could blame him?

The De La Salle-Poly game, to be played Saturday at Long Beach Veterans Stadium, is among the most intriguing high school football matchups ever. Never before has there been a game between teams ranked 1-2 in the most-recognized national polls.

Student Sports has De La Salle No. 1 and Poly No. 2. USA Today has it the other way around.

Almost 15,000 fans are expected to jam sold-out Veterans Stadium for the game, meaning the crowd won’t compare to the more than 41,000 at the Coliseum for a 1956 championship game between Downey and Anaheim.

But, said former Southern Section Commissioner Dean Crowley, “We’ve never had a game in California that has the implications this one has. De La Salle has its winning streak and Poly has its winning and tradition. This is a big one.”

Tickets sold out in about 20 hours, even though Poly had temporary bleachers brought in from the Long Beach Grand Prix to increase seating capacity by more than 3,000.

Joe Carlson, Poly’s athletic director, has spent much of the past week fielding inquiries from national media outlets. The Southern Section office, which is helping Poly handle the deluge of media for the game, has received credential requests from NFL Films and ABC News, among others.

The game is being televised live by Fox Sports Net 2 in Southern California, Nevada and Hawaii, and is available nationwide on DirecTV (Channel 653). Interest is high even on the East Coast, where New York Giant teammates Omar Stoutmire and Amani Toomer, who played for Poly and De La Salle, respectively, are reportedly considering a friendly wager: The loser has to wear garb of the winning team.

There is much more at stake than bragging rights. De La Salle’s winning streak is at 116 after a 42-0 victory over St. Francis last week. The Spartans (3-0) haven’t lost since Toomer’s last game in a De La Salle uniform, nearly 10 years ago.

Poly (3-0) is 57-1-1 since the start of the 1997 season, having won Southern Section Division I titles in ‘97, ’99 and 2000. The Jackrabbits’ last loss came against Mater Dei in the ’98 title game.

There is no secret to the success of these programs, though the reasons often are overly simplified. Most often, it’s said that Poly wins because of its talent and De La Salle wins because of its ability to mold players.

There’s more to it than that.

Like many high school powers, De La Salle and Poly have year-round strength and conditioning programs, and their coaching staffs are populated by assistants who absorbed the team’s philosophies while playing there.

“Coaches who come in and have very little knowledge of the school or feeling for it usually don’t stay long,” Ladouceur said. “They just don’t understand it.”

Ladouceur, a former probation officer, is his players’ biggest critic and closest ally, a dichotomy that seems to work wonders.

Certainly, opposing coaches such as Mater Dei’s Bruce Rollinson are impressed.

“They have a quiet confidence about themselves,” said Rollinson, whose teams have lost four in a row to the Spartans. “There’s no hoopla.”

Ladouceur, who in his 23rd season at De La Salle has 252 victories, said the Spartans concentrate on things other than their win-loss record.

“We measure our success on how we played to our potential,” Ladouceur said, “And we measure our success on heart and desire, camaraderie, teamwork, accountability.”

Poly Coach Raul Lara, who serves as a mentor to troubled teens in his job with the Los Angeles County Probation Department, shares many of the same philosophies. The coaches may offer tough love, but inside their hardened exteriors lies tenderness and a sense of understanding that makes kids want to play for them.

And playing for them means learning about more than football.

“I always tell the kids, ‘You never have a perfect game,”’ said Lara, who took over the coaching duties this season after 12 years as an assistant. “‘Well, life is not perfect. During the game, you’re going to have to go through hurdles.... Are you going to run around the hurdle or are you going to go right at it and jump over it and land on the other side?

“‘Well, it’s the same thing with life. Are you going to try to run away from the hurdle or are you going to face the problem?”’

De La Salle and Poly players draw strength from facing their problems together. Spartan players call it a brotherhood; Poly players say they act as a family. “We’re kind of like a chain,” Poly defensive tackle Manuel Wright said, “and we all stay together.”

De La Salle players bond during spontaneous off-season camping trips and other excursions. For example, players convinced coaches to charter a bus to Santa Barbara last summer to watch wide receiver Demetrius Williams, a former teammate bound for Oregon, play in the CaliFlorida Bowl, an all-star game for high school seniors. Mandatory prayer meetings the day before games also play a role.

“Some of the most special times to me have been when we come together in the chapel the day before a game,” De La Salle quarterback Matt Gutierrez said. “We just kind of sit and center our minds and our emotions onto the game.”

De La Salle Athletic Director Terry Eidson, who is also the team’s defensive coordinator, said the ability of his players to bond has a measurable impact in games. “When the kids play for one another and do it selflessly,” he said, “that’s a big part of where our success comes from.”

The Spartans’ success also comes from a large talent pool. De La Salle is the only boys’ Catholic school in Contra Costa County, population 930,000, and it has drawn players from as far away as San Francisco who had to make a half-hour train ride in each morning. The school’s most recent graduating class included six Division I college players, and the school has sent four players to the NFL.

But even rival coaches concede that the real genius of the program, and perhaps the reason for its prolonged success, is the coaching staff’s ability to mold talent.

“They develop their talent to the max,” said Bill Cockerham, who coaches Pittsburg, the last team to beat De La Salle, on Dec. 4, 1991. “If you’re a good player and you buy into them making you a great player, it’s going to happen.”

Lara doesn’t have as much molding to do at Poly, the destination point for many of the best football players in Long Beach, the fifth-largest city in California with a population of 430,000. The Jackrabbits have sent at least 38 players to the NFL, more than any other high school in the nation. At least 10 players on this season’s Poly roster are bound for Division I college programs.

Poly players aren’t as much made as discovered. Lara spotted Hershel Dennis, one of the top running backs in Southern California, when he was a freshman on the junior varsity playing for a varsity scout team and emulating an opposing team’s running back in practice.

“Definitely, we have talent.” Lara said. “Great talent. But what we do, and I think this is why a lot of our kids are successful at the next level and go on to the NFL, is we try to emulate, as much as possible, a college program.”

After Saturday, they’ll also know what a big college game might feel like.