Looking at the numbers. WA state population is roughly 78% westside, and 22% eastside. I looked at 4A because it is the biggest sample population-wise, and it also closely correlated with the “east/west split”. Also, since Metro is 3A, it removes the “downtown Seattle” bias, as that area/league lags far behind the rest of the state.

4A has 51 schools- East 15, (29%), West 36 (71%). So 4A has a little more weight using that than just base population.

Champs- West 9 (64%), East 5 (36%)
Placers- West 75 (67%), East 37 (33%)
Top 10 teams- West 7, East 3
Total team points scored West 1209 (68%) East 569 (32%).

Looking at D1 wrestlers, college wrestlers, or state champs is pretty silly, because the sample size is so small.

When you look at the numbers, 2 things jump out to me:
1. Despite a much larger population to draw from, West doesnt have as many schools (and therefore teams) as one might expect. They may be heavy in 3a, but I suspect that the real answer is that W Wa has a lot of people that simply do not have young families at all…as the East is filling more schools with a lot smaller population base.

2. Once you look at in terms of “teams”, the differences in 4A are not as huge. Everything correlates within 3-4 percentage points, with that edge to the East. Meaning, people from Lake Stevens, Tahoma and Sumner are a lot more like people from Spokane Valley, Tri Cities and the Yakima Valley than they are like people from Ballard, West Seattle, or O’Dea.

Of course, this is just one year. This year alone, East losing Hoffman and Maltos at 120, kids transferring out of G-Prep, or other injuries to key wrestlers could have been enough to shift the stats a couple more percentage points. Would love to see someone dive in a go back a few more years on this.