For Swampscott, it's all in the wrist

Accessory is a portable playbook

In a game against Lynn English, Swampscott players check their wristbands for play codes called in by the coaches. Swampscott eked out a 34-32 win. (Jay Connor/Globe Correspondent)

Football is essentially like an extra class for Swampscott High quarterback Chris Cameron. The wristband is his textbook.

"There are more than a hundred plays on the band," he said. "One [set] on the front, one on the inside. Some receivers have to have three bands."

His job as quarterback is essentially to devour everything about the team's offense. From his own assignments, to his receivers' routes, to his running backs' holes, to his linemen's pass coverages. And since it's an offense that his head coach, Stephen Dembowski, has been working the past eight years, it goes without saying that it's a lot to take in.

"It's a real sophisticated offense," Cameron said. "We run the same offense as Auburn, Michigan State, some of the real big college teams. Coach just keeps adding plays."

The idea of a wristband isn't alien to football.

Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger can't run a drive without glancing down at his wristband. Northeastern football coach Rocky Hager had his players wear bands up until last year, when it looked like they were paying more attention to the wristband than the actual play. Dembowski has made his quarterbacks and receivers wear them the past seven years, but this season he decided to put the bands on everyone.

The point in all cases is to make sure the players understand their assignments and how the situation dictates exactly what that assignment should be.

"Basically everything that we do is a concept," Dembowski said. "We require each group, whether it's linemen or receivers or running backs, to understand the concepts that apply to them."

So far this season, Cameron has thrown six touchdown passes for a 2-1 Swampscott team averaging 30.3 points per game. The Big Blue uses signs rather than words to call the plays; the only time they huddle is on the first play of the drive or a dead ball. Otherwise, the wristbands are their reference.

"It allows us to play faster and avoid mental mistakes, misinterpreting the play or the concept," Dembowski said. "Each player can check his own band and understand what his assignment is for that specific play, then line up and execute it."

Dembowski is an admirer of offenses: from Gloucester's and Lynn Classical's ability to run between the tackles to Winthrop's wing-T, to the triple-option philosophy Saugus has adapted.

The benchmark, he said, is Everett.

Huddles are few and far between in the Crimson Tide's offense, which has the ability to pound the football with the most physical Division 1 teams and still execute efficiently through the passing game.

At a conference last year, after Swampscott and Everett had both secured Super Bowl titles, Dembowski said he had a chance to hear Everett head coach John DiBiaso speak.

One particular nugget stuck.

"He said [his team] threw the ball 89 times last year [with] 18 touchdown passes," Dembowski said. "We threw the ball 300 times last year and threw 21" touchdowns.

His own offense had to be refined.

Dembowski took over as the head coach at Swampscott in 1999 when the Big Blue was still running the I formation.

Swampscott won 35 games from 1994 to 1997 running out of the I, but by the time Dembowski had taken over, they had run out of linemen. They had great skill players, but were undersized. So he wanted to find a way to adapt to the talent he had.

At a clinic in 2001, he heard someone talk about shotgun formations, multiple wide receiver sets, no-huddle offenses.

Dembowski didn't want to experiment. He wanted to make it his full-time offense, which he said was the key to its success. Since 2001, Swampscott has compiled a 63-22 record with three Northeastern Conference championships and a Super Bowl title.

Dembowski has added wrinkles every year since the first season.

"He works real hard at it," Cameron said. "He tries to pick up any little thing he can find in film."

The result is dozens upon dozens of plays.

"We can run anywhere from 15 to 20 different formations," Dembowski said. "We can go from two backs to no backs. We can do a lot of things with motion. We have the ability to move any receiver to any spot on the field. We have a lot of built-in terminology to our system, which is something that we've just developed over time."

The spread is the new trend in the Northeastern Conference.

After three straight years pounding the ball on the ground with either Pat Bailey or Greg Pierce in the backfield, Beverly opened its playbook for junior quarterback Mark Hannable, who went 10 for 15 with 116 yards and three touchdowns in a Week 2 win over Lynn Classical.

Danvers and Marblehead have incorporated it into their offenses.

And Lynn English nearly used Swampscott's weapon against it, with senior quarterback Jesse Fowler throwing for 248 yards and two touchdowns, nearly rallying English back from 21 points down as the Bulldogs and Big Blue combined for 66 points in a 34-32 win.

Having more teams adopt the system is a dream for a coach like Dembowski, who said he has poured thousands of hours into refining his own offense over the years.

"With the spread," Dembowski said, "there's a lot of X-and-O challenge to it. . . . It's funny seeing how other teams run their plays. It makes game planning very interesting because you know what they can do. You have to prepare for every situation. It makes coaching a lot more interesting than it does against a team that's just going to run the ball for four yards at a time."

The key to winning the chess match is making sure each piece is where it should be. The wristbands are just an insurance policy.

"It allows them to only focus on their job," Dembowski said, "and do their job better."

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.