All games Saturday at Fitzpatrick Stadium, Portland
Class A
Bonny Eagle (11-0) vs. Lawrence (11-0), 11:06 a.m.
Class B
Mountain Valley (10-1) vs. Gardiner (10-1), 6 p.m.
Class C
Boothbay Region (10-1) vs. Foxcroft Academy (11-0), 2:30
p.m.
With the varsity team down to less than 20 players in 1992, a former school principal issued an edict to the school board - do not resuscitate.
But the town implored the school board not to pull the plug. Football, they believed, could not perish. It was too valuable to the identity of the region.
Jack Tourtillotte was the high school athletic director at the time and became the football team's offensive coordinator under head coach Tim Rice. The double-wing offense, Tourtillotte believed, was the best fit for a team that had small numbers and a fierce determination.
Tourtillotte became a student of the offense and installed it at Boothbay in 1995. The double wing ultimately became the genesis of the program's success.
"It seemed to fit the kind of kids we had and the school of thought that was sold on trying to keep the team," said Tourtillotte, now the school principal.
The Seahawks (10-1) will face Foxcroft Academy (11-0) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday for the Class C state championship. It's Boothbay Region's seventh appearance in a state final since 1958 and its fourth in Class C.
Two years after the school board considered dropping football, the Seahawks scored a total of 54 points in the fall of 1994. But since its first year as a double-wing team, Boothbay has:
"It's an effective offense, but it's very basic," said Kris Noonan, a senior tight end.
Boothbay uses only four to 10 plays. The offense is based on a philosophy of power and deception. It incorporates two wingbacks, a fullback who lines up close behind the quarterback, and an offensive line that must be synchronized.
"It's not really complicated," said Joey Farrin, a senior back. "You get things done with it. People know it's coming but they can't really stop it."
To learn the finer points of the double wing, Tourtillotte turned to Don Markham, a high school football coach in Bloomington, Calif., who is considered the creator of the modern double-wing scheme.
"It's deceptive, especially if you're on the field and trying to defend it," said Markham, who is in his 37th year of coaching high school football. "A lot of people don't like to play against it because they don't see it. They know they're in for it."
It's an offense that's not as sexy as the spread, the option, or the pass-heavy "West Coast offense." Even Markham admits that some teams may not want to use the double wing, in part because it's a scheme that incorporates every offensive player instead of making one or two players the focal points.
"There are a lot of things you have to do well," Tourtillotte said. "You have to be patient with it. It's a lot of 3- or 4-yard plays and few passing plays. I think with our kids, though, it's built in, it's who we are.
"It's stood the test of time. We've done it with all kinds of talent, and we've done it with hard-working kids who want to win."
The offense fits the needs of a program in a school with less than 300 students. Considering the empirical evidence, no one is going to question the scheme.
"You are forced to learn it," Noonan said.
Tourtillotte remembers when Noonan and Farrin were in elementary school, sitting atop the hill next to the football field watching the Seahawks, trying to comprehend the game.
Years later, Noonan and Farrin have learned the offense. They were too young to remember a time when football nearly ended at the school, but now realize that a simple offense helped them become part of one of the state's strongest programs.
"It came about to save a football program," Tourtillotte said. "But it made us successful."
Staff Writer Rachel Lenzi can be reached at 791-6415 or at:
rlenzi@pressherald.com
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