Crunching DI women's soccer HS numbers

Crunching DI women's soccer HS numbers
by Sheldon Shealer
March 25, 2020

Can you name the public high school with the most players currently on NCAA Division I women's soccer rosters?

How about which state produces the most Division I players per capita (based on state population)?

Or, which U.S. city has the most active NCAA Division I women's players?

All of those questions, and more, can be answered thanks to the research of Greg Dayton, a stat-nut based in Pickerington, Ohio, who decided to do a deep dive into the 2019 NCAA Division I college rosters.

Dayton has done similar work for Division I women's lacrosse, women's basketball and is working on cross country. He has no direct connection to women's soccer, but gathering data and sharing the results is part of his broader plan to take a statistical look at Division I female athletics.

Now, any such endeavor is fraught with complications, but Dayton did due dillegence to correct or complete information that has been posted in error (or not posted at all) on various college websites. There are also a number of situations that influence these statistical outcomes. For example, the raw number of NCAA Division I-bound players by state is greatly influenced by the number of instate Division I programs since most recruiting remains hyper-local. Also, comparing the likelihood of a high school player going on to NCAA Division I play is a bit skewed because the number of Division I players were divided by the number of high school players, as identified by statista.com. That number does not take into account club-only players, meaning the likelihood of a high school player going Division I is lower than projected. But those types of factors aside, it is an interesting look at the make up of women's college soccer in the U.S. And if done over a period of five to 10 years, it could start to show trends such as increase/decrease of international players, developing soccer states turning out more recruits, etc.

Now, the answers to the above questions, and the first truly is a stumper.

Bill Crothers Secondary School of Markham, Ontario, Canada, is the top public school producer with 18 active NCAA Division I players. Los Alamitos (Calif.) is second with 17 to lead American public schools. Shattuck-St. Mary's (Minn.), a private residental academy, leads all schools with 25 active NCAA Division I women's players.

Hawaii, with 68 current NCAA Division I players, ranks No. 32 in total quantity, but ranks No. 1 per capita, edging out New Jersey.

And for the top city -- this is a runaway. San Diego, Calif., leads the way with 86. Atlanta, Ga., and Cincinnati, Ohio, are tied for second with 59. The surprise on the list might be the fact Omaha, Neb., ranks No. 5.

Among the many interesting numbers, California has 1,198 current NCAA Division I players, which is more than No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Florida, combined!

Below are Top 5s from each category with a link to the complete list. 

Players by State Players per Capita* Players by City By High School International Players
1,198, California 4.80, Hawaii 86, San Diego, Calif. 25, Shattuck-St. Mary's (Minn.) 351, Canada
706, Texas 4.78, New Jersey 59, Atlanta, Ga. 18, Bill Crothers (Canada) 100, England
428, Florida 4.50, Colorado 59, Cincinnati, Ohio 17, American Heritage-Plant. (Fla.) 65, Germany
427, New Jersey 4.37, Utah 52, Las Vegas, Nev. 17, IMG Academy (Fla.) 49, Iceland
403, New York 3.94, Virginia 43, Omaha, Neb. 17, Los Alamitos (Calif.) 44, Spain & Switzerland
Complete List Complete List Complete List Complete List Complete List

*-Per Capita listed as number of Division I players per 100,000 residents in a given state.

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