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Monday, December 1, 2008
Keeping Them on Their Toes
Central Indiana, IN
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By: Anthony Mock
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Photo(s) By: Kyle Guy
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Spread offense helps a Lawrence youth football team produce trend-setting results.
Since its inception, football, as a whole, has grown dramatically. While other sports have traversed both peaks and valleys, football’s popularity and progression has steadily climbed.
Going from a rough-and-tumble game to an aerial spectacle filled with deep routes and five-step drops, it seems no level is immune to change and that includes the youth leagues.
While the main emphasis still remains on learning the disciplines of the game, in leagues like the Lawrence Junior Football League, the gridiron pillars are shifting their course.
Sure, the I-formation is still a staple of youth football, as it allows a beginning offense to use a handful of different run plays without too much chance for error. However, football has evolved. So the decision to incorporate a more complex offense with a structured passing attack at the introductory level was only a matter of time.
The Lawrence Junior Football League’s Cowboys recently installed the spread offense this past season, breaking the mold of what can and cannot be done in youth football. The change ushered in a plethora of new possibilities.
“I was hesitant at first, primarily because of the center/quarterback exchange,” explained Cowboys’ head coach Eric Sessions. “But once they proved that they could handle it, I started warming up to the idea. I was always used to grinding it out, so the big play offense was new to me. I have to admit, though, that I was awe-struck at how quickly we scored at times.”
The transition from the I-formation to the spread happened in the third week of the football season and was drawn up by offensive coordinator/assistant coach Ryan McCall. After getting pushed around in the first couple of games, the coaching staff knew that they had to find a way to circumvent the problem of having a small offensive line.
McCall spent an afternoon watching (Lawrence Central’s) the offense, another program that he has a hand in, and decided to institute a quick, simple series of plays that would keep opposing defenses on their toes.
“When we would line up (in the I-formation), we were facing nine- and ten-man fronts,” McCall said. “We didn’t have the personnel to pound the ball, so we had to figure out a way to score. Originally, we just started splitting one kid out wide, then we found out that if we put three or four kids (at wide receiver), it creates a lot of holes.”
The Cowboys rode the spread offense to a six-game winning streak and a 6-3 record overall. Though it took a while for it to catch on for the coaching staff and even a few of the parents, the players adjusted to it seamlessly. The Cowboys went from struggling to move the ball to putting up three or four touchdowns most games, an impressive feat at the youth level.
Though they were hampered by bad weather in their final playoff game, the results that the spread offense produced were positive almost across the board.
At an age when most coaches rush the football 90 percent of the time, McCall decided to trust that his fifth- and sixth-grade players were capable of handling an out-of-the-ordinary system. It was that trust that earned the Cowboys their half dozen victories and attention of all the other teams in the league.
“Our kids really had a good understanding of the game,” McCall said. “We didn’t put in anything really elaborate, but we were still blessed with kids who had a good football I.Q.”
Both Sessions and McCall were quick to give praise to their players for taking on the challenge of a spread offense.
“If it wasn’t for them running it and committing to it, it never would have happened,” Sessions admitted.
Both also stated that they plan to stick with it for next year, though there is some fine tweaking to be done.
As football is very much a copycat sport, even at the youth level, McCall knows that other teams were watching and taking notes both on how to use the spread and how to stop it.
“I think that there were a lot of people who were impressed by what we did as a team,” the coach said. “It really depends on the personnel, but if it works then others are going to want to use it, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see other teams try it out.”
Of course, they’ll be playing catch-up to the Cowboys. •
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