Yeah, the Wolfy kid is one I recruited early on, and I did use him for a good while. But I ended up becoming attached to the story characters, so I later put all the main characters back into my roster. All of the other kids I recruited I did so mostly because I thought they looked cool. But after spending so much time and effort training in the secret-training area and leveling up stats, I felt it would be a waste to toss away my guys in favor of new, low-level players. You buy them some specials, and they're good to go. Plus, training them in their weak areas helps to round them out; it costs so little to do so.