By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer
Switching to the shotgun has opened up a number of possibilities on the high school gridiron.

JAY – For the quarterback under center, surveying the opposing defense is like viewing a city skyline from a first-floor terrace.

For the QB in shotgun formation, it’s like overlooking the ocean from a penthouse balcony.

Mike Nemi, senior quarterback for Jay, enjoys the latter view on about 95 percent of the Tigers’ offensive plays from scrimmage.

“It spreads out the field more, and I can see things a lot faster, how they develop, and I can just read the defense a lot better. It’s all right there in front of me,” he said.

That is one of the reasons why more and more high school coaches are using the shotgun, not only in passing situations, but as their base formation.

And they’re having great success with it.

Jay, Leavitt and Mt. Blue are all among the top two seeds in their respective playoffs this weekend. Other teams that are still playing in November, including Waterville and Bonny Eagle, use the formation heavily, and nearly all at least use it in passing situations.

Contrary to popular belief, though, the shotgun is not necessarily a pass first, run second formation. With Nemi’s predecessor, Justin Wells, Jay rode shotgun to the state championship game last year with one of the most prolific passing offenses in the state. This year, Nemi has thrown the ball just 53 times, and the Tigers are 6-3 and hosting Boothbay in the Western C playoffs tonight.

In fact, Mt. Blue coach Gary Parlin, considered by many the guru of the shotgun, or spread, formation in Maine, said it’s critical for teams to be able to run the ball out of the shotgun.

“If you don’t have a running QB, you’re going to struggle, unless you have an exceptional thrower,” Parlin said.

Parlin implemented a run-and-shoot offense when he became head coach at Mt. Blue 13 years ago, but the quarterback was primarily under center. When Dustin Ireland became his quarterback, Parlin moved him back into the shotgun to free the athletic QB to run more, thus giving birth to the vaunted “Cougar Gun” offense.

It worked, to say the least. Ireland ran and threw his way to the Fitzpatrick Trophy in 1996, and the Cougar Gun has been Mt. Blue’s offense ever since.

In a nutshell, the shotgun complicates things for the defense and simplifies things for the offense.

“Spreading the field makes the defense commit,” said Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway, whose team gradually used the shotgun more and more before going exclusively to it this year. “There are only so many coverages they can play that are going to be sound.”

“Teams can’t load up as much and take things away like they can when you’re under center,” he added. “And the formations you can use are almost endless.”

Yet Hathaway pointed out that using the shotgun has actually cut down on the size of his team’s playbook. Whereas the Hornets might have 20 different run plays in a traditional offense, they now run only about seven with their spread offense, “but you can run those plays to all sorts of different guys in all sorts of different formations.”

The coaches said players are usually surprised that the shotgun or spread offense is less complicated than a traditional offensive set

“It took us a while to get the kids to understand that, that you’re running all of those different formations, but it’s the same play,” Jay coach Mark Bonnevie said.

Players seem to like the nuances of the shotgun more and are more willing to buy into it, he added.

“I think the kids enjoy it,” he said. “It’s fun for them.”

Coaches have fun with it, too. Parlin and Bonnevie both said they watch college games to try to get new ideas on how to use the formation.

“You can get some unbelievable plays from those guys because they have way too much time on their hands,” Parlin said.

The shotgun is not without its risks, however. It can sometimes make the most fundamental part of football, the snap, an adventure.

“You’ve got to have a good snap, because any time the snap is off by just a few inches, it throws your timing off,” Bonnevie said.

“I had to concentrate a little more because the ball wasn’t always right there where I wanted it,” said Nemi, who worked mostly under center as a JV quarterback. “But I give my center (Jacob Brown) credit because this is his first year and he’s done really well at it.”

Word of the shotgun is spreading rapidly across the Northeast, where it was once thought the formation wouldn’t work in the wind and cold. Hathaway implemented it after watching Mt. Blue and Jay have great success with it. Now, he’s scheduled to be a guest speaker on the shotgun at a coaching clinic.

“I’m not surprised (it’s become so fashionable) because it’s so prevalent in college right now,” Parlin said. “We’re all copycats.”