2023 is a Down Year for Top NorCal Talent

[PAL Booster]

While recruiting guides need to be taken with a grain a salt, they are still one of the better parameters for measuring elite emerging high school talent. Based on the rankings for the class of 2024 it loos like the level of elite talent this year will be down significantly from last year.

A quick look at 2024 shows no Northern California player in the top 20 from Rivals (compared to 5 last year) and only three players listed in the states top 50 (15 last year) and 13 players in the top 100 (23 last year).

247 sports is a little more generous to Northern California but they also have no Northern California player in the top 20 (compared to 8 last year), six in the top 50 (compared to 15 last year), and 18 in the top 100 (compared to 26 last year).

Also it looks like the trend to the two big Sourthn California mega schools continues to accelerate. This year both services list 8 of the top 50 CA players from Mater Dei and 6 from St John Bosco (compared to 2 from Meter Dei and 7 from SJB last year) and 13 from MD and 9 from SJB in the top 100 (compared to 3 for MD and 9 for SJB last year).

I can't remember a recent year where there is not one player from Folsom or De La Salle listed in the state top 100. Also the better leagues in Northern CA are not well stocked. Rivals lists one player from the SFL, one player from the WCAL (247 has three players from the WCAL all from Serra) and noone from the EBAL. The breakdown by section is Rivals 1 in the Oakland section (247 has 2), 2 in the NCS (247 has 1), 4 in the CCS (247 has 6) and 6 in the San Joaquin Section (247 has 9).

 

[larry legend33]

While recruiting guides need to be taken with a grain a salt, they are still one of the better parameters for measuring elite emerging high school talent. Based on the rankings for the class of 2024 it loos like the level of elite talent this year will be down significantly from last year.

A quick look at 2024 shows no Northern California player in the top 20 from Rivals (compared to 5 last year) and only three players listed in the states top 50 (15 last year) and 13 players in the top 100 (23 last year).

247 sports is a little more generous to Northern California but they also have no Northern California player in the top 20 (compared to 8 last year), six in the top 50 (compared to 15 last year), and 18 in the top 100 (compared to 26 last year).

Also it looks like the trend to the two big Sourthn California mega schools continues to accelerate. This year both services list 8 of the top 50 CA players from Mater Dei and 6 from St John Bosco (compared to 2 from Meter Dei and 7 from SJB last year) and 13 from MD and 9 from SJB in the top 100 (compared to 3 for MD and 9 for SJB last year).

I can't remember a recent year where there is not one player from Folsom or De La Salle listed in the state top 100. Also the better leagues in Northern CA are not well stocked. Rivals lists one player from the SFL, one player from the WCAL (247 has three players from the WCAL all from Serra) and noone from the EBAL. The breakdown by section is Rivals 1 in the Oakland section (247 has 2), 2 in the NCS (247 has 1), 4 in the CCS (247 has 6) and 6 in the San Joaquin Section (247 has 9).

Goes in cycles. I don’t put a ton of stock in some of those rankings either. There is still a ton of talent at these schools. Folsom may not have the Lyons or Flores type recruits but they have a lot of kids who will be playing college football.

 

[SJS Lord]

Folsom’s Austin Mack would have been on the list but now he’s off to Washington. There’s multiple 4-5 star kids in the 2025 class that already have transferred to SoCal as well who are from NorCal. The talent is here most years it just looks worse on paper when not all the kids stay.

 

[Streak One]

Still diving into the 2024 class, but I know the high rankings for NorCal players usually come later than the SoCal players. But I would agree that the level of future classes is bound to drop if this trend of moving down to SoCal continues. We are seeing it in basketball too