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Why are Texas and California recruiting hotbeds?

dio

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Club Member
Junta Member
Maybe this is a crazy stupid question, but we keep reading about how certain states are places where you have to recruit (Texas, Cali, Florida). Why do are those the states that produce the best athletes? Isn't a good athlete a good athlete? Why does there seem to be a higher ratio of top-tier athletes in those few states?
 
who said anything about higher ratios. 10s of Millions of people = lots of athletes
 
Maybe this is a crazy stupid question, but we keep reading about how certain states are places where you have to recruit (Texas, Cali, Florida). Why do are those the states that produce the best athletes? Isn't a good athlete a good athlete? Why does there seem to be a higher ratio of top-tier athletes in those few states?

US states by population

1 California 36.96m
2 Texas 24.78m
3 New York 19.54m
4 Florida 18.53m

Does that answer your question?
 
is New York a recruiting hotbed?

So it is all a matter of population?
 
It is mostly population Dio. There are other factors, but it is mostly sheer numbers.

New York is a huge basketball state, the best athletes there are likely playing hoops.
 
1. because that's where the people are
2. because focus on football ellipses just about every other sport in Texas (not sure about Cali, but I'd guess so.) You see stadiums that are huge, serving just one high school; entire communities come to games and sell out every week; the newspapers breathlessly report on every stinger, sprained ankle and 8th grader who might be coming up. It's just a big deal there, and they play to win, coach to win, get their players in early.

Contrast with Colorado for example, where the Denver Public Schools didn't even have a feeder system from middle school into the high school programs until a year or two ago. So our young guys - except the handful who play for clubs - really are 6-8 years behind everyone else when they enter high school and put on pads for the first time. In Texas, you would be way too late to start at that point, save the occasional track star brought in to be a WR.
 
Don't know about Cal, but football is a religion in Texas. It is part of the culture. Cal, Texas, and Florida have the population and the weather, as well.
 
It is mostly population Dio. There are other factors, but it is mostly sheer numbers.

New York is a huge basketball state, the best athletes there are likely playing hoops.

Would I be wrong when I say football may not be as popular in NY as in TX or CA because of the weather and because NY is smaller and most people are living in the NYC metro area, where they probably don´t have space in abundance like in CA or TX?
 
Would I be wrong when I say football may not be as popular in NY as in TX or CA because of the weather and because NY is smaller and most people are living in the NYC metro area, where they probably don´t have space in abundance like in CA or TX?

History is part of it. Jampacked east coast already had their cities laid out when football was invented. You can squeeze in a stadium here or there, but it's not like Texas where they build the stadium, practice fields and parking lots FIRST, then put a town around it.
 
Would I be wrong when I say football may not be as popular in NY as in TX or CA because of the weather and because NY is smaller and most people are living in the NYC metro area, where they probably don´t have space in abundance like in CA or TX?

Space is definitely an issue. And just as football is religion in Texas, there is an ingrained basketball culture in New York.
 
US states by population

1 California 36.96m
2 Texas 24.78m
3 New York 19.54m
4 Florida 18.53m

Does that answer your question?

To frame that an other way, 1 out of 5 Americans live in either CA or TX.
 
Texas and to a lesser extent Florida have towns who's entire identity is built around the local HS football team. It is not unusual for the head football coach to be one of the two highest paid individuals in the high school. Principals get fired when the football team doesn't do well, teaching positions get cut in the budget before the football budget is reduced.

Little girls grow up dreaming of being a cheerleader and boys are raised with the idea of playing on the local team. It is a cultural element that is so ingrained that it is non-negotiable for many people. California doesn't have this same culturally ingrained dedication but it does have a huge population that is sports focused.

One result of a higher focus on football is that individual players also improve above what they would in other places. As was mentioned earlier, Denver Public Schools along with a lot of other Colorado school districts doesn't even have middle school football. In the districts that have it, a 5-6 game schedule is common, coaching is up to whoever they can get, and sometimes it is just an accomplishment to get kids lined up in the right place.

In a lot of schools in states like Colorado just getting enough kids out to field a complete practice is sometimes an issue, in the top states teams are cutting players to have a managable roster.

In states like Texas, kids are learning basics in pee-wee football that coaches in states like Colorado have to teach in high school. As a result of higher numbers and better preparation a kid who is a marginal player coming out of Colorado or a similar state is fundamentally sound enough and developed enough to be a better player than a better athlete from another state coming out of Texas or Florida or one of the other high level states.
 
MtnBuff, you write more in one post than Rugged has in all 10k or whatever of his.
 
is New York a recruiting hotbed?

So it is all a matter of population?

You want a large suburban metro population for football. Those are usually the places that have the facilities for football to go along with the athletes and the competitiveness. New York, while it does put out a good number of players, is mostly a city population. City populations aren't as good for football as they are for basketball.

Fortunately, the growth of Colorado really supports this. We are putting our more than our share of prospects when you compare us with similar population states like Wisconsin and Minnesota.
 
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