You said it perfect. I couldn't agree more. If a club is taking a families money, that kid should be good enough to play. Clubs want it both ways, I get it. They want to make tons of money(nothing wrong with that, all businesses do), they also want to win every single game. Sometimes to please all your customers, you need to sacrifice things. If I had a choice the rosters would be 19 kids and everyone is good enough to play. Some rosters are 28 kids, how can a coach play all these kids. The 10 last kids on roster, leave the tournaments hardly playing and in some cases, never playing. As far as club is concerned those 10 kids are 40 thousand bucks, but now those families want satisfaction and that falls on the coach. I understand you get practice and that's most important, but families spend money and many summer weekends based on their sons lacrosse schedule. They miss graduation parties, other non lacrosse vacation weekends,family parties, their other kids events, barbaques, etc. They do all this to watch their child play and have fun. To not have these kids play is unacceptable. If that was my son, I'd rather someone after tryouts say he is not good enough to make the team. That would save me money and a year of aggravation and my son being sad not playing. I can then look for another team more suitable to his ability.
