Fun topic. This is one of those areas that I put way too much thought into. For most, at the end of the day, the majority of the schedule is predetermined by league play. Home or away is alternated each year for those games. So, what remains is putting together the non-league games, usually including a tourney or two.
There are several goals for me. Of course, top priority is to put the team in the best position to reach the team goals - win league and win CIF playoffs. We used to have more non-league games and most would be scheduled before league play started so it was easier. Then, most often, that would involve scheduling the toughest non-league games we could within reason of expecting to compete. We wanted to schedule games that would make our league competition look like nothing special. Now, we have more league games and they start earlier.
Some other factors... we want to give players who are not projected as starters or players on the bubble or newer players who haven't proven what they can do in games a chance to show themselves in some of these games earlier on. Inevitably, we will need one of them to step up when something happens to a starter. We also want to use these non-league and tournament games as opportunity for some who don't get many innings to do so. We are more concerned with winning the league games. Placing in league determines whether you make it and where you are seeded for regional play.
Also, there are ways to cheat the maximum number of games we can play. A tourney counts two games for four. A Saturday DH counts one game for two. So, the majority of teams in our section try to take advantage of these rules to get more games, experience and PT in.
More recently, we start right into league play. This year, our league is strong, with five good teams in an eight team league. So, we look for an early opportunity to get a DH with an outside team that we can get lots of players in and still compete (so, usually a team that is not that strong but we do still want to see good baseball from both sides as preparation). Then, later, we schedule another DH with a tougher opponent to better prep us for continued league play and post-season. When selecting a tourney, travel costs are a factor, so we usually play somewhere where a stay-over is not necessary. We find the tourney that will not put us against our league teams and will bring in some heavy hitters so, again, we are better prepared for our tougher league opponents and our playoff opponents. The one we have chosen the past three years does a good job of balancing the type of opposition with the bracket games.
We want our players to be travel-tough but we don't have to worry about that. Our current league is spread out geographically, so we travel almost too much. So, for non-league, we try for more home games. Of course, that is nice for parents as well.
The other big factor is spacing to allow for having enough competitive arms and lining the games up so that when you are playing your tough league opponents, your better arms are properly rested.
This all sounds great in theory but there is also that little hurdle of finding other teams that fit the objective of what you are looking for that happen to have the dates open and are willing to travel where you want them to. And, of course, while you want to beat good teams, you also want your team to experience winning as part of building confidence and enjoying their HS baseball experience. So, picking teams that are all four classes above you can cause more damage than good sometimes.
The first year we took over the program, it was not good and we had to schedule some games with mediocre teams so we could compete and build. Since then, we generally want high level competition almost all the time.