Originally Posted by CageSage
Originally Posted by Anonymous
I think we in MD and you in LI are on borrowed time. I have a 2017 and agree that the NY, Phila, MD/DC corridor just dominates, then there is a material drop in skill, depth of talent and lacrosse IQ outside these hotbeds. I also have a U-13 player and can assure you that there is little drop in quality from the hotbed teams to the warm state emerging teams...especially the Denver, Atlanta, Florida and California regions. East Coast dominance still exists with the 2017s and up, but it is on borrowed time at the youth levels rising now.
This is precisely what the data supplied by BOTC has been suggesting. The conventional hotbed representation in the NCAA Division I pool this year decreased from 57% to 54% and while some readers relegate this to a single year statistical variation, BOTC thinks that this is a major tipping point.

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this is the second time "sage", a soccer expert, has put up this chart. The first thing that comes to mind is that it is a chart of 2017 players, Freshman. This chart is telling us that before season starts that N.J is taking over as a hotbed over L.I. because, as of February, there is a little over 3% swing in Jerseys' favor in D1 recruiting and he is willing to call this a trend. The other 2 big gainers are Canada and Cali. Canada is no shocker because Lacrosse was the national sport for decades before they changed it to hockey back in the 80's if I'm not mistaken. Cali is a surprise but if you take there 1.4% combined with the other non-traditional, non east coast regions on this list Ohio at -0.7% and colorado -0.1% you come up with a whopping +2.2% gain in freshman recruits in "non traditional" areas as of February. I for one would not consider that a trend until at least that percentage becomes common for high school juniors for at least 2 years. As of today for 2015 recruits the same % from the mentioned areas is about 0.18% . Long Island alone is 0.123%. not exactly a threat