On the dry-erase board that is the back wall of Brooks Bollinger's cramped office at Hill-Murray High School, a 5-by-4 checkerboard of offensive football schemes acts as a backdrop. To the untrained eye, it's an impressive, if confusing, mix of circles, squares and arrows drawn in orange and red.
A few smaller boxes map out plans for various two-minute drills and two-point conversions.
But the last thing Bollinger wanted to do when he got the job as the Pioneers coach last winter was instill an inches-thick playbook like those he inherited as a college and professional player.
"I needed to condense," the former Vikings quarterback said. "It's the diet version."
A couple sheets at a time, Bollinger has added in plays here and there. A handful have been taken out as well.
"I had a general idea of how I wanted it to look," he said of the Hill-Murray playbook, which still isn't fully assembled. "But I had to figure out what our strengths [were]. And we built the system around that. Believe me, there was a very small master plan at the beginning."
The skinny black binder, which rivals a book report, has worked. Bollinger has Hill-Murray in the state tournament for the first time since 1987. A victory Saturday against Rocori in the Class 4A semifinals would mean the Pioneers would play in their first Prep Bowl next week.
Bollinger came to the job with zero coaching experience at any level. But the Rose Bowl-winning son of a college coach, who made 10 starts in the NFL, had some decent credentials.
