The comparison to swimming is pretty amusing to me. I'm from Nowheresville, USA, but I have a bunch of friends who swam for high D-I schools and they hardly know what to make of all the lacrosse talk. "The clock don't lie" is what they like to say about youth sports politics. My daughter swam year-round for a few years for the top local club and I know the crowd.
Funny thing is that lots of parents in my area think their kids can play lax in college and almost none will. Meanwhile, the swim club gets a ton of their kids scholarships EVERY YEAR and they have a bunch coming up that will do even better (i.e., 14 year olds qualifying for Olympic trials).
I'm not sure the swimmers in my area started out as more "elite" athletes though. (And, yes, I've coached more than one kid in lax who set state swimming records.) They just put in a shocking amount of hours in the pool. Good for them and they like it.
Anyway, I'm not disagreeing with your point. I just happen to be one reader where my town is upside down. It's almost certain that I'll have coached more eventual high DI swimmers in U11 lacrosse than I will eventual high DI laxers.
I swam and played lacrosse for Pixley back in the day. We had a pretty good team, but I never reached my full potential because our pool was small and round and I was always chasing the Bradley Girls around.
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