Color or Black & White?

The most recent Develop on Friday assignment is to take a photograph and then simplify it, either through composition or color (or both). I've gotten pretty good at decreasing clutter to take a simple shot, but I had not thought much about color.  So, this post focuses on choosing between color or black and white. Here's an example:
I started with this photo:

And changed it to black and white to improve it because the orange light was unbearably distracting. Also,  No. 32 blended too much into the background wall and didn't stand out:

Interestingly, I think the following photo works better with the orange light than in black and white; the players aren't lost quite as much as in the prior photo and the color seems to add to the excitement:

I have a tougher time deciding on portraits in color or black and white.  My kids have such gorgeous skin tone that I tend to like them in color:

But here is one that I think works better in black and white because it does cut out some of the different colors in the deck and the grate.  I've found that light is much more critical for black and white as well:

Do you print black and white often?  Is it to simplify or just to cover mistakes?  I really like this lesson because I never really thought before about why some pictures work better in black and white.