Standing Tall-- Your Weekly Update

What is it like to leave a legacy and career record so huge that all agree you’re the best there will ever be?

This week’s Update takes a look at the remarkable legacy of high school football coach Bob Lodouceur. Bob’s De La Salle teams won a record 151 games in a row in little Concord, California. It’s amazing what a person with passion and drive can accomplish while inspiring others. What a wonderful example for us all.

As many of you know, the movie about him also premiers this week (see below…. you’re invited, of course.)

Oh, yes, and on the financial side, the markets once again confounded pundits last week, having a very nice run which we detail as always.

Enjoy!

All the best,
Lee and Jeremy

PS—We’re looking forward to “When The Game Stands Tall” this Friday night’s premier at United Artist Theater 12 at Park Meadows here in the Denver Metro area. We expect a large crowd; call our office if you’d like to come last minute!


This Week’s Quote:

“It’s not about money or the paycheck. It’s about the mission, about walking away from his life and leaving your little space a better place.”
― Bob Ladouceur, legendary football coach


JL Davis Thoughts This Week:

When we think about legendary football coaches, a number of names come to mind. Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Tom Landry, Chuck Knoll, Paul Brown.

Bob Ladouceur had more wins than any of them.

The humble yet impactful high school football coach led the De La Salle High School football team of Concord, California to 399 victories over thirty-four years including a remarkable 151 in a row. More importantly over the years, his total dedication to the individuals on those thirty-four teams helped shape the lives of hundreds of young men. It’s impossible to know the amount of good those young men themselves will do (and have already done) as a result for their own families and thousands of others that they will touch over their lives.

Coach Lad focused his team on doing their very best as individuals. Not competing with someone else, but only with their own personal best. Doing the right things right. Working on fundamentals time and again. Emphasizing self-esteem and dignity. Instilling a sense of pride, sacrifice, goals, accountability and teamwork. All of these elements work in football, in business, and in life, don’t they?

His “formula” is contained in comments he made years ago that can be found at http://www.maxpreps.com/news/5hOaYVX-WUeqxvqxLcBHAg/bob-ladouceur-makes-it-official,-resigns-as-de-la-salle-head-football-coach.htm. Of course, the book is already out, and the movie, “When the Game Stands Tall”, premiers this week.

True to form when he retired a little more than a year and a half ago, Bob had a plan for success in place. His successor, thirty-three-year-old former player and assistant coach Justin Alumbaugh spoke glowingly of the impact Coach Lad had on him as well as all of the players in the program over the years. All of us should be so revered by those we work with!

The Spartans twenty-eight titles will be hard for the new coach to match. But here’s hoping his passion for the job and guidance of the young men in that program will continue to inspire.

At JL Davis, we enjoy the stories of leaders like Coach Lad who make the world a better place. We can’t have too many of them! And we look forward to seeing many of you at the movie premier this week. 

Lee and Jeremy

http://www.maxpreps.com/news/5hOaYVX-WUeqxvqxLcBHAg/bob-ladouceur-makes-it-official,-resigns-as-de-la-salle-head-football-coach.htm
http://www.dlshs.org/athletics/index.aspx
http://www.maxpreps.com/news/5hOaYVX-WUeqxvqxLcBHAg/bob-ladouceur-makes-it-official,-resigns-as-de-la-salle-head-football-coach.htm



Market Week: August 18, 2014
The Markets

Last week domestic equities managed to build on the gains of the week before. The Dow industrials finally returned to positive territory for the year, and the Nasdaq had the kind of weekly gain it hasn't seen since late May. Meanwhile, geopolitical tensions helped spur interest in the relative safety of the benchmark 10-year Treasury, cutting the yield to its lowest level since June 2013.


Key Dates/Data Releases
8/19: Consumer inflation, housing starts
8/20: FOMC minutes
8/21: Home resales, Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey, leading economic indicators
8/23: End of Federal Reserve's Jackson Hole conference

Last Week's Headlines
• Auto and department store sales declined in July, while grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants, clothing stores, and building supply stores all saw gains. That left total retail sales essentially flat for the month, though the Commerce Department said they were up nearly 4% from a year earlier.
• Wholesale prices rose 0.1% in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That was slightly less than June's 0.4% increase, and cut the annual wholesale inflation rate for the last 12 months to 1.7% from June's 1.9%. The biggest monthly increases were seen in transportation and warehousing, which were up 0.5%, while wholesale food costs rose 0.4% and energy prices fell 0.6%.
• Led by a 10.1% increase in auto manufacturing, U.S. industrial production rose 0.4% in July, according to the Federal Reserve. The overall increase represented the sixth straight monthly gain. Even aside from the surge in autos, production was up 0.2%, and the percentage of the nation's manufacturing capacity that's being used rose to 79.2%.
• After the Fed's Empire State manufacturing survey hit a four-year high, the August report showed that improvement had slowed substantially as the reading fell 11 points to 14.7.
• Sluggish economic recovery in the 18-member eurozone stalled completely during Q2 as growth fell from 0.2% in Q1 to 0. More worrisome was the -0.2% decline in both the German and Italian economies, which are two of the tentpoles of the region's economy. The larger 28-member European Union saw a 0.2% increase in gross domestic product, and the official EU statistics agency said GDP had risen in both areas compared to a year earlier (0.7% for the eurozone and 1.2% for the EU).


Eye on the Week Ahead

Speeches at the Fed's annual Jackson Hole conference could influence markets given the internal debate over the timing of interest rate hikes. Investors will continue to monitor the situations in Ukraine, Gaza, and Iraq, and housing and consumer inflation data also are on tap.

Data sources: Economic: Based on data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (unemployment, inflation); U.S. Department of Commerce (GDP, corporate profits, retail sales, housing); S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Index (home prices); Institute for Supply Management (manufacturing/services). Performance: Based on data reported in WSJ Market Data Center (indexes); U.S. Treasury (Treasury yields); U.S. Energy Information Administration/Bloomberg.com Market Data (oil spot price, WTI Cushing, OK); www.goldprice.org (spot gold/silver); Oanda/FX Street (currency exchange rates). All information is based on sources deemed reliable, but no warranty or guarantee is made as to its accuracy or completeness. Neither the information nor any opinion expressed herein constitutes a solicitation for the purchase or sale of any securities, and should not be relied on as financial advice. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) is a price-weighted index composed of 30 widely traded blue-chip U.S. common stocks. The S&P 500 is a market-cap weighted index composed of the common stocks of 500 leading companies in leading industries of the U.S. economy. The NASDAQ Composite Index is a market-value weighted index of all common stocks listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The Russell 2000 is a market-cap weighted index composed of 2,000 U.S. small-cap common stocks. The Global Dow is an equally weighted index of 150 widely traded blue-chip common stocks worldwide. Market indices listed are unmanaged and are not available for direct investment.

Prepared by Lee Davis** and Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions, Inc. Copyright 2014