DD's team (first year 12U) just had their first major attrition from the roster in the 2+ years she has been there. Lost starting F2, F5 and one of their 2 pitchers. In two of the cases (F5 and pitcher) the girls had played up and decided to go play at their age level. Don't necessarily agree with it because the girls were holding their own but I can understand it (there are various legitimate reasons for leaving this particular team and I think one of them is leaving because of one of these...). In third case, while the girl is good, her father thinks she is better than she is and told the coaches that the team was holding her back..whatever that means.
The thing is I am not sure in any of the cases, if it was left up to the kids, they would have left.
Yup. I really, really try hard to let my DD decide on the team. Yes, she could go play for a better team. Would she enjoy it as much? Probably not.
Maybe in a few years...