NCAA Turf Wars – Counties

Where in the country do goals come from?

One afternoon in college, I got into an argument with my teammates about which area of the country produces the best lacrosse players. The debate got so heated that (during COVID era rules on gatherings) it made its way back to our coaching staff that there must have been a gathering in our back yard. In reality, it was just the residents of the house yelling at each other about club lacrosse.

But this question of where do players and goals actually come from is a good one, and has been the guiding question of this project. In case you missed part one, check it out here. In that article, I looked at geographic data on states and countries.

As a reminder, the data that populates this article includes only athletes who played in games last season at the Division I men’s level. Athletes who were on rosters but did not compete due to injury, red shirt, or coaches’ decisions do not appear here. Again, while we hope to have updates soon, this data is from last season (2023). 

Today we dive deeper into the data to better understand where in the United States do players actually come from. By connecting county and hometown information, we are able to understand exactly where players come from across the country, and how impactful those regions are. 

Methodology 

While the statistical data comes from official NCAA box scores, the geographic data pulls from team websites, which may not always be one hundred percent accurate. Furthermore, determining an athlete’s home county can be tricky. For the home county column, I used the following criteria:

• If a player’s hometown was completely situated within one county, then they were assigned to that county.
• If a player’s hometown was divided between multiple counties, they were assigned to the county where their high school was located. In some scenarios, an athlete’s hometown was split between two counties, and they attended high school in a third county. In these scenarios, the player was assigned to the county of their high school.
• If a player attended boarding school, they were assigned to the school they previously attended if publicly.
• If none of the above was possible, athletes were assigned to the county that covered the largest area of their hometown.  

In other words, there may be individual cases where an athlete’s hometowns or the county where they reside is not exactly accurate. I feel that the margin of error in these cases is small enough to consider these statistics as representative, and apologize if there are errors in the data. 

Big Picture – Counties 

Student-athletes represented 324 US counties in 2023, stretching from coast to coast. The counties with the highest numbers of athletes were unsurprising and consistent with historical perceptions about the sports. 

The two Long Island counties were easily the most significant feeders to the NCAA, with 221 players coming from Suffolk County, and 169 more from Nassau County. They were joined in the top five by Fairfield County, CT, Baltimore County, MD, and Anne Arundel County MD.

The below map is, to my knowledge, the first of its kind, and it helps to show exactly where in the country players actually come from. The colors in the map represent the numbers of players from each county, but users can hover over the map to see how many cumulative goals come from players from each county. 

Obviously, these statistics are not perfect, in large part because they fail to adjust for the population of each county. For example, Suffolk County is the 25th largest county in the country, home to over 1.4 million people. Nassau is 29th, with 1.35 million. 

Using data from the United States Census, it is possible to account for the population of each one of these states. 

Among states with at least 10 players, Anne Arundel County produced the most Division I men’s lacrosse players per capita, followed by Suffolk County, Chester County, PA, Hunterdon County, NJ, and Ontario County, NY. 

So we know where players come from, where do goals come from? Statistically speaking, the highest number of goals per capita is in Hunterdon County. Hunterdon, which is home to roughly 125 thousand people, produced 17 Division I players. Those players contributed 106 goals between them, along with 57 assists and 163 points. 

Jared McMahon (Bloomsbury, NJ) led the crew with 32 goals and 15 assists for Mount St. Mary’s. Following him was Jack Aimone (Ringoes, NJ) who had 25 goals and 7 assists for Rutgers, while Connor McMahon (Bloomsbury)  had 16 goals and 11 assists for Bryant and Sean Parker (Flemington, NJ) had 14 goals and 3 assists for UMass Lowell. 

Below is a chart of the ten states that produced the most players per capita, again with a minimum of ten players. 

Ontario county, which is part of the Rochester metro area, had the smallest population of any county that produced ten or more players, and reflects the still thriving lacrosse culture in upstate New York. 

It is also worth noting that lacrosse is growing in many of the largest urban centers in the country. While still predominantly a suburban game, significant numbers of players came from Los Angeles County, Cook County (Chicago), San Diego County, and Dallas County. 

While these counties include suburban areas, it is a positive development for the sport to have a presence in major cities. 

Defence Comes From Anywhere 

Evaluating defensive contributions on a singular level is difficult, and we are limited significantly by box score stats. While caused turnovers and ground balls reflect a certain aspect of quality defensive play, they also reward risky behavior and fail to account for other defensive contributions. 

Some players may cause lots of turnovers but get beat a lot, and most LSM’s will outpace other defenders in ground balls due to their participation in faceoff battles. In short, defensive stats are tough. 

Arguably the best metric is starts. Where do starting level defenders and goaltenders come from? Let’s look at the data. 

Among players listed as defenders or LSM, there is actually more parity in the number of starting players. Suffolk county still leads the way, with 23 players matching this criteria starting games at defensive positions. They cumulatively combined for 219 starts. This crew featured All-American Alex Mazzone from Johns Hopkins (Stony Brook, NY), as well as the majority of the defensive starters from LIU and Stony Brook. 

However, the lead in this metric is less dramatic than total players. Nassau County follows closely behind with 14 starters who started 163 games. They were joined in the top five by Baltimore County, Fairfield County, and Middlesex County, Mass. 

What about Goalies?

The first major finding about goaltenders is that 109 goaltenders started games last year. Keeping in mind that there are 76 Division I programs, a significant number of programs started more than one goaltender in 2023. 

While mostly understood as a position with very little volatility, many teams around the country have questions to figure out between the pipes. Saint Joseph’s led the country with four different goaltenders starting games in 2023. 

New York is the king (for now) of goaltenders. Of the 111 players who started games last season, 32 were from New York. This includes reigning NCAA Tournament Outstanding Player Liam Entenmann (Point Lookout, NY), and the NCAA Tournament Outstanding Player from the year before that, Logan McNaney (Corning, NY). 

They had almost three times as many as the next closest state, Pennsylvania (12 goalies). Maryland had the third most with ten. 

On a county level, the four counties with the most starting goaltenders were all from the empire state. Suffolk and Nassau counties again paced the way, but were followed closely by Onondoga County (part of the Syracuse metro area) and Westchester County (a county just north of New York City). Chester County, PA, came in fifth. 

After that, it was pretty random. 

Stay tuned for updated data throughout the 2024 season.