Justin Alumbaugh puts character at heart of De La Salle football

CONCORD, Calif. — Few possess a role in carving out and maintaining De La Salle’s place among the great high school football programs like that of UCLA alumnus Justin Alumbaugh.

He and the rest of the 1997 Spartans etched their names into the record books by breaking the national mark for consecutive wins at 73. Alumbaugh then helped coach linebackers and offensive linemen in many of the games along the way to the still-standing record of 151 straight victories until 2004, as well as almost every De La Salle win since.

When Bob Ladouceur, widely considered one of the best coaches in high school football history, stepped down as coach to an assistant role in early January 2013, the owner of a 399-25-3 Spartan record and architect of a De La Salle dynasty had known for years who his successor would be.

A linebackers and offensive line coach as well as the leader of the Spartans’ offseason training for more than a decade, Alumbaugh shouldered more responsibilities than the coach in the last few of Ladouceur’s 34 years at the helm.

“He was the guy. I kind of felt that long before that time too,” Ladouceur said. “As soon as we got him here full-time, I knew he’d be our next coach if he was going to stick around long enough to do. … Luckily, he did.”

Despite inheriting the responsibility of guiding one of prep football’s most storied programs, Alumbaugh remains dedicated to fostering minds in locker rooms and classrooms alike as an educator whose achievements are measured in what kinds of people he can help develop.

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Alumbaugh drove up to the Bay Area to coach summer camps and several fall games for De La Salle during each of his undergraduate years at UCLA. His volunteer commitment meant giving back to a preparatory school and football community that was so influential in pushing Alumbaugh to think beyond himself as an adolescent.

“I knew how much it had done for my brother … for me,” Alumbaugh said. “I’ve met a lot of great people. I thought it was a really great experience, and I thought it was something I could contribute to as well.”

Jobs in telecommunications, sales and insurance presented possibilities to Alumbaugh upon graduation in 2002. He wasn’t sure what to pursue, though he knew that he did not fit as a “nine-to-five desk guy.”

Ladouceur and longtime De La Salle defensive coordinator Terry Eidson shared the same vision as to where Alumbaugh belonged. They remembered how quickly Alumbaugh understood academic and athletic concepts, as well as the ease with which he led as a player and taught others as a coach.

“We really believe great coaches are born – they’re not really made that much,” said Eidson, also a UCLA alumnus.

Alumbaugh received a call from Ladouceur in the midst of settling a job offer in San Francisco. Ladouceur instructed Alumbaugh to become not only a full-time assistant coach, but also an educator who taught from the sidelines and in front of classes.

Alumbaugh listened, and continued to coach in his former capacity while working toward a master’s degree in history.

“He could’ve done anything,” Ladouceur said. “But I told him, ‘Man, you’re so effective here, working with kids. Give it a shot. You could always change professions.'”

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Alumbaugh passed up Division I scholarships from football programs and left walk-on and semi-pro baseball to commit to being a student at UCLA. A college football recruiting process that sometimes reduces football players to their measurables made the decision even easier.

“I’m not naive or anything like that,” Alumbaugh said. “It was just I thought I had more to offer than … my height and my weight and speed.”

Alumbaugh spent his undergraduate years nourishing his mind, and his exposure to people from many different backgrounds laid the groundwork for his teaching tenure at De La Salle.

A math-student-turned-history-student focused on the Holocaust, he was particularly fascinated by the ability of a history professor like Teofilo Ruiz to make hundreds of students truly engaged in course material.

“I took four or five different classes with (Ruiz) … (and) he made education fascinating for me,” Alumbaugh said. “It impressed upon me how if the teacher can get you involved and make the subject seem alive, the more you learn.”

On some days as a teacher, Alumbaugh hands his high school freshman English students control of their learning experience in communication by requiring two-minute speeches to the class about their lives, interests and goals. The effective delivery of messages tailored to each different class or team provides the common thread between teaching and coaching, two concepts that are mostly one and the same in Alumbaugh’s eyes.

“It really is just trying to look at yourself as an educator and get across to kids as well as you can,” Alumbaugh said of his two roles.

Among the few differences between the football and academic arenas is a lighter classroom atmosphere that Drew Sullivan, a junior offensive guard and history student of Alumbaugh’s, recognizes can be distinctly turned on and off.

When not challenging one of his history students to stand up in front of the class and locate Thailand on a world map, Alumbaugh may be found trash-talking teenagers after raining down about a dozen three-pointers during a half-court basketball game in PE.

The fun Alumbaugh has on the job reflects a love for a career of challenging students to develop the traits, like accountability and selflessness, that he feels are needed for success as an individual and a community.

“The high school years are some of the most formative in young (people’s) lives,” Alumbaugh said. “Kids at this age are normally very open to some change. They’re open to improving.”

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Alumbaugh’s tasks changed little with his ascension, and while he recognizes the intensified spotlight, Alumbaugh brings much of the scrutiny himself.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself to uphold the tradition of what I went through (as a player), what a lot of the guys I know went through,” he said. “There’s a lot of pressure to maintain the integrity, discipline and toughness of the program. … But it’s exciting, too.”

Finishing with a top-10 national ranking from multiple outlets, the Spartans lost once in 2013, snapping their four-year run of state championships with a mistake-riddled, six-point title-game defeat against St. John Bosco.

As he was accustomed to, Alumbaugh saw that his team played and hit hard. But the mistake-filled loss proved a manifestation of communication issues between seniors and coaches, as well as seniors and freshmen, throughout the season.

“There are times and points where we didn’t have as many guys engaged than we needed to be,” Alumbaugh said. “And those things we had seen all year long … play a team like Bosco, and you can’t really mask it anymore.”

Eidson burst into laughter remembering how emotionally drained he saw Alumbaugh was at the end of 2013.

“I told my wife, ‘If he has five seasons like that … he’s going to retire,'” Eidson joked of what he called a successful, albeit issue-filled season.

The players, whom Sullivan feels Alumbaugh is invested in as people, would know little about any football-related stress Alumbaugh might have had. Alumbaugh said he does not speak a whole lot of football with his team.

Like Ladouceur before him, Alumbaugh focuses on keeping track of his athletes’ behavior and academic performance. Day-to-day responsibilities help alleviate the elevated pressures under which he now operates.

“To be honest … most of the time (I’m) a little too busy to worry about mundane stuff like that,” Alumbaugh said.

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Spring football practice for the 2014 De La Salle football team ended in a weight room furnished with old equipment and lined with peeling green paint.

In closing, a fiery Alumbaugh extinguished for nearly 50 players the notion that team initiation rituals were ever a component of the program.

For as decorated a heritage as the team lies claim to, Alumbaugh named a tradition no more, but perhaps much more, romantic than the spartan brick building in which they all stood.

“The tradition at De La Salle is working hard, being good citizens, being good teammates and beating the crap out of teams once we get pads on,” Alumbaugh said.

“That’s the tradition. Working hard, being good. That’s the only tradition.”