The base set A- 11 formation from www.a11offense.com.

"Road Runner, Road Runner, Road Runner!" come the cries from the Dreher coaching staff and suddenly there are eleven players on the field with numbers below 50. Running backs, wide receivers, quarterbacks and defensive backs take to the field and line up in the strangest offensive ls ientse myoeun have ever seen. Three , two players in the backfield, and six spread- out wide in varying configurations. All the while the opposing defense is completely confused, but does not even have the time to scratch their heads before Dreher snaps the ball and takes off running.

The Road Runner formation has become a bit of a phenomenon at Dreher in this 2008 season. With their regular double wing offensive attack having a harder time keeping pace with some of the more prolific passing offenses in the area, Dreher coaches Bill Bacon and Peter Guyton have begun using the wide open, startling offense commonly referred to as the A-11.

A-11 is the name given to an offense devised at Piedmont High School, a San Francisco area school with a small number of students. The offense is so different and exotic that even the New York Times

Photo by Richard Latvala A look at the Piedmont A- 11 offense in action.

put together a piece on the formation on October 16. According to Coach Guyton, the goals of the offense are to, "confuse the opposing defense, to get our best athletes on the field at the same time, and to have fun." Taking cues from the A-11 and adapting the formation to resemble fake punt plays, Guyton has developed his own version of the offense.

The A-11 is based on having two active and mobile quarterbacks in the game at once. Dreher's look does include two players in the backfield but neither is the starting quarterback. In fact, the Blue Devils' version of the offense is a hybrid of the A-11 and the Wildcat offense currently employed by the Miami Dolphins in which the two players in the backfield are both running backs. The A-11 is meant to potentially have every player on the field as an eligible receiver, but Guyton's version features more wide, sweeping running plays, and short screen passes. The advantage of not having a traditional offensive line allows Dreher to have blockers already in place for runs and passes designed to spread the field. "It makes the defense cover the whole field, which is pretty hard to do," adds Bacon.

At Dreher, the players seem to enjoy running the bizarre formations and plays. While the team just started working on the offense in week six, the coaching staff believes the Blue Devils are picking it up quickly. Conceptually, it is almost unrecognizable as American football, but the Dreher players are being taught to view it more like a fake punt. The Blue Devils have had a high success rate with a half dozen fake punt plays using several different ball carriers. The transition to the Road Runner is not so far- fetched when viewed that way as Guyton has explained to the team.

In the end, the advent of these formations and their usage at Dreher has been geared at finding an advantage over the defense but also at having fun with the game of football. The Blue Devils are having another difficult year but looking outside the box for solutions is a credit to the coaching staff and to the players for adapting on the fly. Bacon and Guyton may look to employ the Road Runner on a more consistent basis next year as they will have the whole summer to prepare. Dreher's usage, the first by a South Carolina public school to Bacon and Guyton's knowledge, might inspire other teams to look to the future and envelope- pushing limits of offensive ingenuity. Regardless, the offense should not be looked at as a gimmick, says Guyton, but as an honest effort to give the Blue Devils a chance to win and give the players something to look forward to that no one else is doing.

A-11 Facts

• Blend of offenses including the West Coast, Spread Option, Run and Shoot, Shotgun Zone Fly, Wing- T, Single Wing, Notre Dame Box, Triple Option, Veer, and more.

• Features up to eleven players as potential threats and can place two quarterbacks in shotgun.

• Meets the criteria for a scrimmage kick formation.

• Base set includes a center and a tight end on each side with three wide receivers spread to the right and left.

• Developed by Piedmont (CA) coaches Kurt Bryan and Steve Humphries for more than two years before it was unveiled during the 2007 season.

• A-11 was formed to negate the size advantage larger schools typically have over the smaller ones.

• Piedmont has seen a major increase in the safety and protection of its players using A-11.

• The offense has been approved in 41 states. Only seven and the District of Columbia do not currently allow it.

For more information visit www.PiedmontFootball.com, www.A11Offense.com, or www.A11Network.c.om