We didn't win a tournament last year until the ASA Easterns win. We knew putting together our schedule that for a younger 16U team it was going to be a grinder every weekend. With one exception, they were all ASA sanctioned and either college showcases or USA/ASA qualifiers. To their credit the players more than hung in there. Although we didn't bring home any regular season trophies, the season record before the run at ASA Easterns was something like 35-18-1. We played nearly all the Ohio 16U big dogs but win or lose (and there were some really encouraging wins), the young ladies made some stellar plays and apparently learned from their not so stellar ones. If you are playing down in terms of competition, these opportunities for increased confidence and/or growth are not nearly so frequent.
Sure it would have been nice to win some of those regular season tournaments, but even with hindsight I wouldn't change our schedule from last year. I wish we could repeat all the same events this year, but having the ASA/USA Nationals bid in hand has meant that we will have to skip ASA States, the Region 9 closed qualifiers, and Dayton Metro (fortunately, the ASA Code directly allows us to compete in the open National Qualifier that will be held again this year in Shreve, so the rule at the Ohio state level about forfeiting the USA/ASA bid does not apply).
I have no doubt that the strength of our schedule last year resulted in our acceptances this year to (in order of dates) Laser Nation, Best of the Best, Stingrays, and GAPSS. And I believe that even without the ASA Easterns win, the strength of our schedule last year coupled with a winning regular season would have gotten us in to these tournaments this year.
Once you hit 16U's (and arguably sooner), the goal should be to hold your own against the top quality teams, thereby allowing your players to attract some attention from college coaches. Winning trophies in fields that include those quality teams enhances your players' college opportunities, but winning trophies in middling of the road tournaments does not, imho, get your players nearly the college attention as doing less well up against the big dogs.