A Basic Rocket Offense for Youth Football

The youth team I most recently helped coach runs the wishbone.  I like the wishbone.  It has lots of lines of force, nice symmetry, and easily goes unbalanced or breaks into other formations.  But it's hard for kids under the age of about 11 or 12 to master its most powerful weapon, the triple option.  With the 7-8 and 9-10 year old teams, we didn't run the option at all - the wishbone still gives plenty of ways to run the ball with power and misdirection, so we did that instead.  But running the wishbone without the option feels a little like using a wrench to pound a nail - it works but it feels like there might be a better way.

As an assistant coach, my job is to help the head coach implement his vision, so none of the following is intended as criticism.  I also fully understand that running the wishbone with the younger kids gets them familiar with the formation so they are ready to run the option from it when they get older.  But if the goal were just to have a team of young kids run the ball with power and misdirection, there are simpler ways to do it, like this:

The Rocket Sweep