Piedmont Coach Kurt Bryan and Offensive Coordinator Steve Humphries led a team of A-11 supporters to present a petition to the California Interscholastic Federations (CIF) Almeada headquarters to save the A-11 offense. Their “hail mary” attempt to save their revolutionary rule bending offense came in the form of 2 proposals to the CIF Advisory Committee.
The first suggested a 3 year pilot program to study the A11 offense and its effects on the game in areas such officiating, competitiveness, fan enjoyment, and safety. Rejected.
The second proposal said that the CIF should simply decline to adopt the January rule changes made by the National Federation of High School Associations (NHFS). Just ignore the rules. Heck, if you can bend them for a few years, why not break them for a few more? Rejected.
So, finally, the A11 is dead! Not quite….there is the remote possibility that the CIF Executive Committee could ignore the recommendations of the Advisory Committee and look at the petition and its merits anyway. It is unlikely, however, because the CIF would risk losing its status with the NHFS. But remember, this drama is unfolding in California where the unlikely is often probable.
It should be noted that Piedmont High players were in attendance in the meeting and should be commended for being bold enough to stand up and debate a controversial subject. They spoke about the opportunity it gave to more undersized players to succeed and that may indeed be viewed as a positive. However, if the rules of the game are changed to remove much of the power aspect of football then who is going to stand up for the bigger kids that aren’t fast enough to be a potential reciever or running back. Who is going to cry “foul” when a big kid can’t earn a spot in the lineup? It seems that the game of football, as it stands, features a nice mix of speed and power and affords many young men to find an area to specialize based on thier God given size and ability.
If some are too small to play football, don’t change the rules to accommodate smaller sizes. A better suggestion would be to look toward other sports such as soccer, baseball, tennis, etc.
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