It has everything to do with the parents, either willingness (and means) to further their child's skill. The parents familiarity with the sport; either they played or are from a town that played. And yes a big one is the youth coach that played and wanted to get his son involved since he had a lax stick in the crib.

Funny many of the kids who are good, can all be traced to one of these if not more of the above. In my town, many of better player parents migrated from a town with a big tradition. Couple that with coaches that they themselves played at the next level. Its not everything, but it definitely helps.

I will say this, lacrosse in our day (although a great sport) did take a back seat to Baseball. I think that evolution happened slowly since us parents were in HS, but then again what hasn't eveolved.