A trend has quickly spread over the football teams of the South Plains in the last seven years.

Much like most of us have become addicted to social sites and text messaging, a new technology in the form of an offensive scheme has become more popular than the latest celebrity Twitter.

Of the 39 area 11-man schools, around 20 will feature some form of a spread offense this season.

The spread offense has been adapted by high schools all over the state of Texas and the rest of the country but has had a strong influence on schools near the West Texas region in part because of Mike Leach and his success at Texas Tech since taking over the football program in 2000.

The spread’s high-flying, high-scoring, pass-happy antics have become one of the biggest shows on turf since Houston and BYU first came onto the college scene with a form of the spread some 20 years ago.

And with high school athletes now learning the complexities of a simplified format, it gives more teams a chance to dazzle fans and put up 60 points or more during a Friday night game.

Roosevelt head coach Greg Poynor, who is in his second year as head coach for the Eagles after learning the spread at Muleshoe with head coach David Wood, said it gives the undersized teams a chance to compete at the highest levels in their classes.

“It’s helped a team that didn’t have overwhelming, big linemen that can just shove people out of the way to be able to compete a little bit,” said Poynor, who led the Eagles to their first playoff win in 37 years last season. “What we try to do is try to get the ball to athletes in a little bit of space. And he may be only 5-foot-6, but if he’s healthy and has a grasp of the offense, he’s the type of guy that can be a star in a spread offense.”

Poynor took what he learned from Wood, who led the Mules to their first Class 2A Division I state championship last season, and formed it into a system that features other aspects of the Eagles’ offense.

They do similar things as far as short, precise passes to running backs and inside receivers but also feature a run package to get the ball around in different ways without giving away Roosevelt’s offensive scheme.

“In our offense we have about six, seven or eight guys that will touch the ball and have a chance to score,” Poynor said. “My biggest thing that I wanted to hit on was turn this into something we can use to win. It’s an offense that’s fun and one we can compete with and win.”

So has the technical offense spread out as far as it can go?

Traditional offensive schemes like the Power-I, Slot-I or Wing-T, such as the ones Littlefield and others have stuck to over the years, are becoming rare packages for defenses to face — especially in District 3-2A where Roosevelt, Post, Shallowater, Idalou and Denver City feature the spread somewhere in their offense.

Littlefield coach Bryan Huseman, whose team runs the Slot-I formation, said he has never seen a reason for the school to shift its scheme.

“I think the best thing is I’m not a very smart coach,” said a laughing Huseman, whose Littlefield squad ran through the regular season undefeated on its way to a District 3-2A title last year. “I don’t like change. So since I’m not very smart I never really ventured out to take on the spread.

“I love what we do here. We’ve been doing it for a long time since Jerry Blakely was the head coach here in the 1970s. … Our coaches love what we do and we love what we run and we’re always on the same page. We just never felt like it was ever necessary to change what’s been working for so long for us.”

More importantly for Poynor, it’s been a way to get more kids who would not have thought about playing football before involved at Roosevelt.

“To me it’s exciting for kids to watch and see something that seems so natural and fun,” Poynor said. “I think a lot of us started out throwing and catching a football when we first got into this sport. And now, it’s allowing these kids to come out and just keep having fun.”