Given your team's age I would think hard about where you want this team to be in a year or two. If you have girls wanting to play in college you will need to be able to compete in top tournaments and gain entry to top exposures. To do that you will need a team that can accomplish those goals. As others have said, you'll likely need a bigger roster due to high school conflicts. You'll also need enough talent to compete. Given both of those things, I'd take the strong, well-liked player. No brainer. For the girls who 'just want to play varsity in high school' you should be able to provide them a good training/game-play experience, and if they sit a bit more than when they were 12U they should be able to handle it. For the girls that want to get exposed, you can accomplish that too. And trust me, having a team that compete and win at a high level is more fun for everyone.
People who warn you that keeping a big roster will cause players to walk....what kinds of teams are those players going to move to that don't ALSO have relatively large rosters? It's common at 16U/18U competitive teams.
I do NOT believe you need to have an all-exposure team to succeed or to stay together. The team you describe can make it though to the end, but it's not easy. I see you trying to make it work for the right reasons. I like everything you've said about how your run your teams. Be upfront with everyone, girls and parents, and do the very best you can by them and you'll likely be alright. Even then, it might not work out but you can know you tried to do the right thing. Good luck.
(I also strongly agree with Orange Socks that 14U is a strange age with 8th grade/HS cross-over. Once you get everyone in high school things will feel and run very differently than at the younger ages).
People who warn you that keeping a big roster will cause players to walk....what kinds of teams are those players going to move to that don't ALSO have relatively large rosters? It's common at 16U/18U competitive teams.
I do NOT believe you need to have an all-exposure team to succeed or to stay together. The team you describe can make it though to the end, but it's not easy. I see you trying to make it work for the right reasons. I like everything you've said about how your run your teams. Be upfront with everyone, girls and parents, and do the very best you can by them and you'll likely be alright. Even then, it might not work out but you can know you tried to do the right thing. Good luck.
(I also strongly agree with Orange Socks that 14U is a strange age with 8th grade/HS cross-over. Once you get everyone in high school things will feel and run very differently than at the younger ages).