Originally Posted by Anonymous
Varsity teams should always try and field the best team possible. In my community, the varsity coach would lose his position if he were not successful - a bad year or two is one thing but producing weak teams regularly would not be acceptable. I am not sure where parents come into the equation at all - it seems like parents of older kids that end up not playing much have much more problems with their egos being hurt - they seem to make all of the noise. I firmly believe in a meritocracy - particularly at the high school level. Start all seniors or start all freshmen - whatever gives your team the best chance to succeed. Not everyone gets a trophy at this age.
Agree with your point with only exception in that I find it is the parents of the younger kids egos being hurt - they were recruited early and maybe even committed but having hard time getting playing time due to older players who were late bloomers.