Your only as good as the competition you play, if they don't do well they can play "A" tournaments.
Theybwerebthe beat "A" team last year, why shouldn't they move up a bracket and see where they fit in.
Any team that was an A team last year, could play in AA bracket this year and have plenty of competitive games. Moving from A to AA Elite skipping over AA is generally not in the best interest of the boys and is only fueling the coach so they can say "me too". It will be a little late after the boys are throughly frustrated to then register for lower tournaments.