<p>Sue22, the NFHS is the recoginized national authority on interscholastic high school sports participation. Its data is considered accurate and often referenced for mainstream sports, so the fact that lacrosse is not recognized by it in certain states is likely indicative of its very limited presence there. I notice, for example, that the team ranked as 14th best in Missouri is 0-14 and 31st best in Tennesse is 0-9 suggesting there isn’t much going on beyond these limited lists of ranked teams. The Westlake lacrosse site indicates there are 45 teams in TX and LA. My guess is the 18-20 states not recognized by NFHS where lacrosse exists represent at most another 600-800 teams nationally and that’s likley generous at 30-40 per state. Even if that’s true, there’s still 3-4x more high school wrestling programs than lacrosse ones as compared to 50% more college lacrosse than wrestling teams, so the point remains unchanged.</p>
<p>And yes, lacrosse is played in many private high schools but so aren’t all the mainstream sports, so those schools would be additive to all sports. The difference is that unlike football, basketball, baseball and wrestling, college lacrosse rosters are full of players from these private/prep schools. If and when lacrosse becomes relevant in states known for producing large amounts of athletes for mainstream sports, that dynamic will change. Until then, the path to college participation for above average high school lacrosse players at prep schools and in certain northeast/mid-atlantic states will remain relatively easy. </p>