http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/09/06/BAG0P8KHA81.DTL
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CONCORD
Life, not streak, goes on
De La Salle players philosophical after national-record streak ends
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Carrie Sturrock, Chronicle Staff Writer <!-- END WRITER CREDIT-->
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Monday, September 6, 2004
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[font=geneva,arial,sans-serif]The players stood in a protective, knotted mass, huge green duffel bags at their feet and drawn expressions on their faces, as still more bags came off the conveyor at Oakland International Airport. [/font]
[font=geneva,arial,sans-serif]De La Salle High School's legendary winning streak was over. The loss Saturday to the Bellevue High Wolverines in Washington state, the Spartans' first game of the season, ended a record of 151 consecutive wins for De La Salle that stretched back to 1992. No other American football team -- college or professional -- can boast such a streak. [/font]
[font=geneva,arial,sans-serif]The team faced tremendous pressure from fans and media to keep making history -- and with just five returning starters from last year, it had also faced questions about how it would play. [/font]
[font=geneva,arial,sans-serif]But Sunday afternoon, less than 24 hours after the loss, some players were already taking the long view. [/font]
[font=geneva,arial,sans-serif]"It's definitely very disappointing to work so hard over the summer and try to uphold the tradition," said senior Scott Hugo, who plays center. "The fact is, adversity comes at any time. The thing that's going to establish us as a team and group of teenagers is how we handle it. That will be the real measure of the Spartans. It's not the winning or losing." [/font]
[font=geneva,arial,sans-serif]And in the end, it's just a game, said athletic director Terry Eidson. The team endured much worse less than a month ago with the killing of its 2003 MVP, Terrance Kelly. Kelly was shot to death in Richmond on Aug. 12, days before he was scheduled to leave for the University of Oregon on scholarship. [/font]
[font=geneva,arial,sans-serif]"That's real life," Eidson said. "That's tragedy." [/font]
[font=geneva,arial,sans-serif]"It puts this loss into perspective," Hugo agreed. "In the grand scheme of things, (losing the game) is not that huge of an event." [/font]
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With each passing year, the pressure mounted to defend the team's historic run. Just last week, senior running back and defensive back Dustin Watson had said, "We've been hearing since the day the season ended last year that we weren't going to be very good. That's OK. People like to talk." [/font]
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The De La Salle program had been the subject of a book and, last month, a seven-page spread in Sports Illustrated. The players had even once appeared on a box of Cheerios. [/font]
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Despite all that, neither the coaches nor the teachers talked much about the winning streak that garnered all that publicity, said senior and defensive back Anthony Gutierrez as he waited for his teammates to collect their luggage so they could board a school bus back to Concord. [/font]
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"It's not what De La Salle is about," he said. "None of the coaches, none of the players, none of the people at De La Salle ever said anything about the streak. They never put any pressure on us. It's about going from game to game. Every team loses. People are still going to work hard. We're not going to quit working." [/font]
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No one interviewed tried to blame the loss on anything other than this: the Spartans made mistakes, and the other team played a fine game. [/font]
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When the team returned to its hotel after Saturday night's defeat, parents who had flown up to cheer the players on had pizza and soft drinks and kind words waiting. With so many of those parents still working their way home Sunday, parents of former players had balloons and a banner that read "We Love You Spartans" -- as well as a heap of Subway sandwiches -- to greet the team bus as it pulled into the De La Salle parking lot Sunday afternoon. [/font]
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Now that the streak is broken, De La Salle Principal Brother Christopher Brady detects a sense of relief. [/font]
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"Although I don't think anyone wants to say it, it's nice to have that gorilla off their back -- it was an 800-pound gorilla."
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When the streak began . . . [/font][font=geneva,arial,sans-serif]
It was a different time when De La Salle High School's football team began its record winning streak in September 1992: [/font]
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George H.W. Bush, father of George W., was president. [/font]
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Pete Wilson was the governor of California. [/font]
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Nicolas Cage's "Honeymoon in Vegas" was the No. 1 film. [/font]
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Barry Bonds was a Pirate and about to be MVP again. [/font]
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ntd said:
Seriously, how in the hell do you lose to a team that doesn't attempt a single pass? I think it would be a good idea to stack the line after a little while with just a skeleton core of dbs
ill tell you, it means you got your ass kicked