In our area 16/18U is when the number of teams contracts and roster go from 12-14 to 14-16. Most pissed off dads already started new 12U teams.....
JAD if the 16U team my DD is on could roster 14-16 we would. The players around here think short term and not long term. We had 2 leave and they were 2 of the older girls so come spring if they had been doing their emails, phone calls and attending camps they would have got more playing time than the younger girls. But they up and left because they didn't start every game on Sunday in our last tournament. We played 3 they started 1 and played in the other 2. That's not good enough around here.