Gotcha. That is what we gathered based on the 2019 US Club Lax final rankings as well as the level of play on the field.
We definitely noticed that the Eastern teams had excellent game IQ and stick skills, certainly compared to the Western teams. Probably because so many of our players are converted soccer players who are getting a bit of a late start to lacrosse. In general your teams play a more sophisticated offense compared to what is played out West, where many teams will give the ball to their one or two fastest players and have them try to score off isolation.
That makes sense because some of the teams you played have top level coaching where "me" ball is frowned upon. You also got to play both Maryland teams and a Long Island team which have different play styles.
Here, the top athletes with top level stick skills will concentrate in a few clubs. Those clubs will attract talent regardless of coaching, so the players themselves may be fantastic but their team ball may or may not be great depending on the coach assigned to the team. Regardless, they are generally very competitive because of the level of talent on the team. The next tier down will attract girls who are either great athletes but have moderate stick skills or the opposite, great sticks but moderate athletes, and lastly a few parents or girls who are tired of the top tier politics. Those middle tier teams usually survive on good coaching, because without it, they can't compete and would end up in the B tier and then have a mass exodus of players. The B tier is generally considered the "money grab", coaching is a hit or a miss, they get poor tournament selections and lousy brackets and players who for one reason or another are less committed.
