Taking Steps to Preserve the Game's Future

In our first-year of leading the Arroyo Dons High School Football Program, we are undergoing a major rebuilding process from the ground up, a complete overhaul.

The Dons have instituted a Strength and Conditioning program for the first time in Four-years, and equally important, the coaches, the team and the administration have taken steps to help improve player safety now, and to also help preserve the game's future.

Take a look at the nationwide outcry and emphasis about reducing concussions and how to improve player safety.

Respectfully the Arroyo Dons have done just that, by implementing a super-spread offensive system stemming from the A-11 Offense, and aligning the offensive players in athletic two-point stances in order to protect their heads, necks and brains more effectively.

For the Football Players at every level of the game, the Millions of Fans that Love the game, and also for the thousands of Football Coaches now and into the future, we must do our part to help the game make Progress and Grow into a much safer future.

We can do it by working together to ensure an improved game for generations to come...

A-11 Going Nationwide in Rookie Football

UPDATED on July 4th, 2018: The Pop Warner National Youth Football Organization announced it has joined forces with USA Football to expand its Rookie Tackle football league! Please see my earlier post below!
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TEN-years ago in 2007, the football coaching staff and players at Piedmont High School (CA) took a very big chance and decided to try something radically different and new, by implementing the A-11 Offense featuring totally interchangeable players on Offense, eliminating the 3-point stance on the Line of Scrimmage, and using Two starting Quarterbacks in the backfield at the same time for the whole season.

Fortunately, in both seasons of utilizing the A-11 Offense in 2007 & 2008, the Piedmont football team did very well, and made the Playoffs each year.

More importantly, while No Offensive system is without its many flaws, the other Valuable benefits of the A-11 revealed itself, when over a two-year period in 2007 & 2008, Not One Piedmont Offensive Football Player suffered a serious injury.

Better yet, in 2008, Many high school football teams nationwide began using the A-11 Offense with excellent results, especially in terms of greatly improving player safety.




And, now Today, USA Football officially announced the launch of its ROOKIE Tackle football league nationwide pilot program with over 24,000 players, that features several Key components of the A-11 Game:

1. Fully Interchangeable Players on Offense

2. Eliminates the 3-point Stance

3. More Spacing between the players

Overall, this Major Announcement is a Game Changer forever, and it's a great thing for football players, coaches and fans!

Humbly, as the game of Tackle Football continues to evolve to become safer and much more dynamic, the Two-Quarterback, A-11 Offense unveiled at Piedmont in 2007 & 2008 demonstrated the incredible possibilities and put forth the groundwork for others to follow.

From Scientific American Magazine on the A-11 Offense in 2008:

“In a standard formation with five fixed linemen, a play can unfold with 36 different scenarios for who receives the snap, and who ends up with the ball…including a quarterback sneak…

In the A-11 Offense, because the receivers and linemen (and even the quarterbacks) are interchangeable, the number of different possibilities for what can happen on a given play Skyrockets to 16,632.”

Imagine what the game will look like in the year 2018 and beyond!

Thank You and a New Journey at Arroyo

When you are fortunate enough to coach football for 25-years at the High School and NCAA levels in northern California, the remarkable people that you encounter along the way create the strong foundation for the fun, sad, amazing, heartbreaking, thrilling and breathtaking moments that form the entire body of a football season or seasons.

During my coaching career at Chico State University, Chico High School, Piedmont High School, Menlo College, St. Mary's College, Livermore High School and Piedmont High School again...I have had the great pleasure of working with outstanding Student-Athletes, Coaches, Administrators and Staff, the Parents, and also Family and Friends.

I am incredibly Thankful for the relationships that we built and shared together, whether it was for a Reason, a Season or a Lifetime. We will always have the fond thoughts and great memories of those wonderful moments that we accomplished by planning and working together, and words cannot fully express how appreciative I am to have been a part of it.

Now, entering the 26th year of my coaching career and diving into my 1st year at Arroyo, I am humbled, honored and very grateful to the Arroyo Administration for the opportunity to lead the Dons football program.

I really look forward to working with the Arroyo Student-Athletes and my coaching staff, and the entire Arroyo Football Family to rebuild the Arroyo Dons Football program, and together we will make it a fun and exciting adventure!

Football's Future is at a Crossroads

Our Wonderful game of Football is at a Crossroads at this point in history. To be clear, it has happened before and we are in the vortex of it again now.



(Yale Football in 1905 below)



In more than 150-years of its evolution, the game of Football has soared to amazing heights, and it has suffered and prospered once again. All along the way, the game has adapted in order to thrive...most of the time those changes were voluntary, but sometimes the Game was Forced to change (in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt) and modernize some of its rules to improve player safety and push the game into a more mature and acceptable future.

(President Teddy Roosevelt) Legalized the Forward Pass in 1906



Now, at this point in its incredible "life," the game's key indicators are pointing towards important adjustments to improve the rocky path of player safety that it's been riding on, which will help to increase the critically important youth and high school football participation numbers that serves as the lifeblood of Collegiate and Professional Football.

Looking back at the game of Football about 100-years ago, does that model of the game resemble the game that we play today?

No...and, things either get better or they get worse...they do not stay the same.

(Circa 1912) Football Helmet Safety Test



Morally, and with the advent of medical investigative technology that reveals the health and safety of the players in a real-time format during practices and games, combined with the fact that the athletes of today are bigger-faster-stronger than virtually every football player from 75-100 years ago...the leaders in charge of shaping the future of football at every level of play should answer these basic questions.

1. Is the game of football going to become Faster and more Spread Out overall, or will it become a more condensed, smash mouth game?



2. Are the Athletes of today and into the future going to become slower and weaker, or Stronger and Faster?


3. Will the Football Players of today and into the future be able to process real-time information on the field of play at a faster rate than their predecessors overall?




4. Can the Game's rules be modified to help improve player safety, and also help the game become even More exciting and complex than it already is right now?





Looking back and evaluating the changes that have taken place throughout football's history, one thing reveals itself over-and-over again, and that is...the game of Football has always adapted to its Athletes and adjusted to the particular set of circumstances affecting the game at that point in time.



For those of us that love the great game of Football, we need to keep experimenting and find the best methods and new rules to greatly improve player safety.

The Great Answers to Improving Football Player Safety and Opening Up the Game are Right in Front of us.



We owe our best efforts to all of the football players, coaches and the fans of the Game's past, and also to all of the Future Generations still yet to come.



The Exciting and Innovative Future of Football Awaits...