Honestly, I can't answer the first question because I've never been a part of a team that did that. When I played with Ashley Hall, we had a decently rounded team and didn't need to. I would surmise, however, that any technically good players would see this tactic and either use it to try to shine on their own when playing weaker teams and be happy or choose not to play for the team at all, thus further shrinking the pool.
Players without the tactical and technical experience of a high level player I can imagine would just be happy to know they only lost 1-0 to a team that normally beats teams by multiple goals. For one game, in my opinion, I could easily put up with that strategy if we 'knew' we didn't have the manpower to stand toe to toe and just wanted to minimize the damage. I'd rather be proud we didn't lose by 5-10 goals then worry about how we had to, legally, play to make sure we didn't get too embarrassed because some teams, no matter what they do, will lose by a lot anyway.
As for the second question, to a degree, yes, I believe it could. When I played, our sweet little geometry teacher was the coach, and while a great man, he was not a soccer coach. The skill of the team depended 85-90% on the challenge players from the Fury and other high level teams. While this can work somewhat (see Wando) it requires a coach who has learned enough about the game to do okay and a constant source of those players to maintain a level of play. That's easy when you have 2500 students and a central club. Not so much when you have 42 students per class, cost as much as colleges, and pull students from all over who may or may not have access to a good club.
I think they would have to get someone who was somewhat well known in the soccer community to get people to make a leap of faith and then he or she would have to have the coaching skill and personality to help turn mediocre players into good ones that can help support and play alongside the great ones. Demonstrating over a few years that he or she has that sort of talent in coaching and a slowly progressing win-loss record might serve to entice those players who elect not to play, to do so. It would take years though.
I do, however, want to note that there's also the point that those players who 'really' want the competition either move to BE or Wando or whatever school is nearest them. For one, it's a lot cheaper, and secondly, they're guaranteed a good team. I know a lot of, if not all, the girls I played with growing up, never played for Ashley Hall and eventually just stopped playing altogether.
That said, I think there's sort of a split between the players that are aiming for college and go to where they can get a little extra reputation, the players that don't care enough that eventually quit entirely, and (in the past) the players who were good enough, but not aiming for any specific college ball, but ended up as walk-ons or playing for a lower division team because they managed to shine on a team.
