Great topic!!
Last year, my travel team was 14U. It was the first year that I heard from so many players about not being able to get to every game. Family vacations, basketball camp, etc. For the first time, I had to call a coach the night before a game and tell him I didn't have enough players (I had a 13 man roster). Words can't describe how disappointed I was...
But trying to put it in perspective, we are a town-based all-star team playing similar teams around the north jersey area. although we had a couple of players from another town, it wasn't like I was recruiting the very best players from multiple towns. To get more committed players would have required a fairly substantial drop in the talent pool, which I wasn't ready to do. We just don't have enough field time to practice as much as I'd like.
So this year we're doing Junior Legion, and now I have some 16 yr olds to choose from. I'm not sure I can expect the commitment level to be any higher, though. I'll probably keep 15 on the roster to avoid problems.
At this point, I'm happy to have a bunch of 15-16 yr olds that want to play. Most of these kids won't get past high school ball, so I want them to enjoy it. Tying them up for every day from May-July just isn't realistic, if I want this team to continue.