Twins Right Wam Green Right 2 Trail Zoom Motion.

Blue Early Rip Lip 8 Flip.

When it comes to Xs and Os on the high school football field, coaches and players rarely get any Zs.

Not with terminology to learn, assignments to memorize and passing trees to decipher.

"I've done pretty complicated systems," said Butler coach Garry Cathell. "And I've done easier systems. I would categorize (Butler's offense) as medium hard. You gauge that a lot through the verbiage you use and how many numbers you use. We use both words and numbers."

But Cathell is more the exception than the rule where it comes to devising offenses.

Many coaches prefer to use the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

"I'd say my system is about as simple as you can get," said A-C Valley coach Randy Lemmon. "Other than saying, 'You run down the field and I'll chuck you the rock,' I don't know how it could be any easier."

There was a time when a player would receive a playbook of varying thickness on the first day of practice.The task was to memorize each play and be prepared to regurgitate it on the practice field and in live action.Not so anymore. Most coaches don't even use a playbook in the strict sense of the word.Instead, a coach might have a book of set formations and that's about it.But a single play, no matter how simple or diabolically devious, can be run from any of those formations.Players these days must learn them on the practice field, not strictly from memorization."We didn't always have playbooks," said Slippery Rock High coach Clyde Conti. "We learned them by doing. We rep to death."Moniteau coach Steve Wilson is in the Conti camp when it comes to playbooks."I don't really give the kids a big, thick playbook," Wilson said. "We have formations and terminology, and how we call our plays. We can literally combine different terminology to make a countless number of plays."If we wrote all of that down, it would be the size of a phone book."Cathell, though, does have a playbook - the collection of all of his brainstorms over the years.He doesn't hand out copies to his players, however."Our playbook is 2½, 3 inches thick," Cathell said. "We have probably 35 to 40 formations."Cathell said complicated is the only way to go when playing in the Quad-A of the WPIALTeams are more likely to catch on to tendencies - and they are quite adept at spotting plays before they are even run, he said."Not to take anything away from the smaller classes, but probably by the second or third game, you have to do something different," Cathell said. "You have to find a way to run the play you want to run from different formations."For Lemmon, it's just the opposite.The Falcons' football team is a hodge-podge of talent with players coming from both the A-C Valley and Cranberry school districts.That makes devising complicated schemes counterproductive and nearly impossible."We're in a co-op with Cranberry," Lemmon said. "A lot of times, I don't see these kids until they put their pads on. To make things complicated would be a disaster."Instead, Lemmon has basic formations with basic plays. The terminology is easy to grasp.A play with complex terminology at another school might be boiled down to a simple number, like "36" at A-C Valley."We pretty much do what we do best," Lemmon said. "We'll line up and run the same play over and over again if it works."

Grove City coach Jeff Bell is another disciple of the keep-it-simple philosophy.Bell, who led the Eagles to the PIAA Class AA championship game last fall, has a three-ring binder full of his creative creations. But lately, he has boiled his brew down to more simple, easy-to-grasp concoctions."When I first started, I would give the play to the kid and by the time he got to the huddle, he couldn't remember it," Bell said. "I give a lot of credit to my offensive coordinator, Keith DeGraff. He simplified things and the kids pick it up a lot easier."So what used to be "Blue Early Rip Lip 8 Flip" is now "Trips Right Toss Right.""That's a lot easier to remember," Bell said.Some coaches go a step further to help their players remember a play.Like all coaches, Conti has a set terminology to call his plays. But sometimes he improvises."We've had our players name a play after a cute girlfriend," Conti said. "Whatever helps them remember it. You have to have fun with what you do."

Coaches aren't oblivious to what their counterparts are doing. In fact, there's a bit of pirate in all of them.Not all the plays in a coach's playbook are his own.Coaches admit to pilfering plays - or at least the ideas for them - from other coaches and programs at a rate much greater than anyone would think."All coaches are thieves," Bell said.Conti enjoys attending Slippery Rock University practices and picking the brain of offensive coordinator Jay Foster on a regular basis."I probably bug him to death," Conti said. "You go and pick up different ways of doing things and see how you can adapt them to what you are doing."Wilson also gleans much from SRU's program.Moniteau even runs some of the same plays on Friday nights that The Rock will run Saturday afternoons."Our offense, to be honest, is as close to SRU as you can get," Wilson said. "We run the same type of plays. We've modeled it after them."Bell has taken things a step further in the past.During a game against Wilmington several years ago, the Greyhounds ran a particularly devious passing play that drew Bell's attention.He studied it on film and incorporated it into his playbook.It was simply called "Hounds Pass.""It was a really good play," Bell said. "I thought, 'Hey, we ought to run that.'"But copying plays isn't always the best way to go about business.A coach has to have the right personnel."The problem is you have to make sure you can do the things you are seeing someone else do," Wilson said. "I can't go down to the University of Pittsburgh and do what they're doing. I don't those kinds of athletes. You have to do what you do best."

No coach's playbook is set in stone.As the seasons change, as well as the talent in camp, coaches must sometimes go back to the drawing board.Last year, Bell had a quarterback in Jim Jaskowak who had a strong arm and was a pocket passer. He called plays based on that strength.This year, he has more mobile quarterbacks in the fold.Cathell said he keeps his basic philosophy the same but tweaks it year to year based on his talent.This year, though, he is doing a major remodeling to his defense."Our offense isn't changing a lot because we have our quarterback and running back coming back," Cathell said. "We're totally revamping what we do defensively."But coaches are creatures of habit. They may tweak and tinker. They may pilfer plays from other coaches. Ultimately, though, they will keep their basic philosophy intact.It's a necessity."I'm not one to just scrap something," Conti said. "I'm not going to go with something just for a moment either. You have to have a feel for what your philosophy is. You can't be shifting gears all the time. You have to have a system and have faith in it."