Coaching highschool basketball since the 1979-80 season and being the second-winningest coach in state historical past with 1,127 victories, Mike LeDuc is one of these old-school coaches who likes to push his gamers ahead and fade into the background when workforce success comes.
This season at Damien, LeDuc can take a bow for guiding the Spartans to the state Division I championship with little measurement however a gaggle of gamers who beloved to shoot threes, by no means stopped hustling on protection and executed near perfection on the greatest stage at Golden 1 Center and through his workforce’s playoff run.
For turning a gaggle of gamers he fondly referred to as “overachievers” into champions, LeDuc is The Times’ boys’ basketball coach of the 12 months.
Through his a few years of teaching at Damien and beforehand at Glendora, he’s mentored such excellent gamers as Tracy Murray, Casey Jacobsen and Cameron Murray. Now Cameron’s sophomore son, CJ, performs for Damien. It’s a full circle second for LeDuc, who was holding his granddaughter at the awards ceremony in Sacramento.
As the years go by and the sport retains altering, LeDuc continues to adapt, regulate and energy on.
LeDuc‘s reply is, “Basketball is a real simple game. It’s a game of repetition and if you do it over and over, you expect it to be done perfectly.”