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Kurt,
I've got to chime in. I think your promoting your new innovation is commendable. It's good to see people trying to innovate the game.
With that said I think that sometimes you are overly defensive. Many of us have played and coached as well as officiated and have a deep love for the game. We have a vested interest in helping to preserve the integrity of the game we officiate. New innovations are great but ultimately they must pass the muster of not only the NFHS officials but also the game officials that have to apply the rules on the field. My state representative spends a lot of time receiving feedback from officials before he goes to his NFHS meetings.
I agree that at this point your offense is legal under current NFHS rules. However, while your advocacy is commendable I think you have to be thick skinned about any critical feedback you receive. Officials have just as much invested in the game as you and many of them will not like your offense. This dislike will not be personal but it will be frank and might sting a bit. I am undecided on whether your offense is good for the game of football. I think your innovation is taking advantage of an exception. However, the manner in which you take advantage in no way resembles the reason for the exception.
I would expect within the next year or two the NFHS will have to take steps to legitimize your new offense or close the loophole that allows it. I'm curious how you will react if the decision goes against your offense. I will predict that in two years the loophole will be closed and the A11 will be a footnote in football history. There are simply too many purists in the coaching, officiating, and rule deciding ranks and these purists hold most of the power.
I understand that your team may be overmatched in some cases. However this is more of a issue for those that govern the divisions in your area. I think that a better way to handle the issue is to place your school in a division with others schools of similar size. I'd hate to see football in general possibly screwed up because a smaller school found a loophole that allowed it to compete with much larger schools. If allowed to continue the larger schools will just adopt the offense and then beat you at your own game because they can draw from a much larger pool of talent. If a sizable percentage of schools adopt your offense then all of a sudden football as we know it doesn't exist anymore. This will NOT sit well with a great many people involved in the game. I for one do not want to see football change much from where it is.
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