Lacrosse has been tagged as “the fastest game on two feet” and those “feet” are rapidly moving across the country. Colleges and High Schools are now adding Lacrosse to their athletic repertoire as the sport gains attention in areas that knew little if anything about the game in the past.

Lacrosse originated from Native North Americans who often played the game as a way to train for warfare. (Awesome!) The game may not be played for the same reasons today, but the action and intensity that is displayed is still highly competitve and exciting.

Traditionally, Lacrosse has been most popular in the Northeast, especially in hotbeds like Baltimore, New England, and New York. This is no longer the case with hotbeds now forming in the states of California, Colorado, Texas, Florida, and several other. In 2000 there were 1,273 programs across the country. Below is a map that illustrates the placement of these programs in 2000. The city of each program was geocoded to find it’s lat/lon and then placed on the map. The red dots represent the lat/lon placement of a program’s city.

2000 HS Boys

In 2007 there were a recorded number of 2612 Boy’s High School Lacrosse Programs across the country. That is more than double the amount that existed in 2000 and equates to about 190 new programs a year in that time frame! All this in only 7 years! Below is a map showing the locations of the 2007 programs across the country. Pay close attention to comparing maps in the states of California, Florida, Colorado, Utah, Washington, Oregon, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Minnesota, and Illinois.

2007 HS Boys

The Northeast still shows itself to be the hotbed of Boy’s High School Lacrosse but there is an apparent difference between the two heatmaps. The 2000 map is extremely bright in New England and we see in the 2007 map that the brightness of New England has faded a bit over time. It is highly probable that in another 7 years the heat will spread throughout the country as new programs spring up in areas other than the Northeast.

Below illustrates a state that has had tremendous growth from 2000 to 2007. It’s California!, a state far away from the traditional hotbed of New England. In 2000 there were a mere 40 High School Boy’s Lacrosse Programs throughout the entire state. In 2007, there were 173. This is a dramatic increase and illustrates how non-traditional hotbeds are discovering the sport and expanding it’s presence rapidly. The maps below show the spread from San Francisco to San Diego between 2000 and 2007.

2000 CA HS Boys

2007 CA HS Boys

Colleges and Universities are creating programs across the country which are attracting growing number of players to their schools. Below are two maps that show the growth of NCAA Division 3 Men’s Lacrosse Programs across the country. The first map illustrates the number of programs in 1999. The second map shows the number in 2007. In 1999 there were 112 programs and in 2007 there were 138. With the amount of high school players playing now the demand for more programs at the collegiate level has increased. It is expected that more colleges and universities will be creating lacrosse programs at their schools in the near future.

1999 D3 Mens

2007 D3 Mens

Another major factor in the spread and growth of lacrosse is Major League Lacrosse (MLL). Started in 2001 the league contains 10 teams all throughout the country. This has helped pushed the popularity of the sport by showcasing it’s top players. The teams have gained a following in their respected areas which include a few teams that are not located in the traditional hotbed of the Northeast. The map below illustrates where all ten of these locations can be found. Notice the correlation between MLL team locations and the growing hotbeds of High School Lacrosse. Western teams like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, and Chicago are all in areas where high school programs are showing a tremendous amount of growth.

2007 MLL Teams

What has caused the game to spread so quickly? There are a 4 main factors. 1. Increased visibility in the National Media. 2. Development of a Professional League 3. Growth of new High School and College Programs 4. Growth of Youth Programs. Knowledge of the game is spreading making it no longer appear to be in the dark to the general public. The game is also very appealing. It is fast-paced and full of non-stop action. It is a good mix between many popular American sports such as football, basketball, and hockey. The whole of America is starting to discover Lacrosse and it is spreading just as fast as the game itself.

Note: All college/high school data was compiled from laxpower.com, All MLL data was compiled from mll.com

http://www.geocommons.com/workspace/show/3883: Go here for more interactive maps from FortiusOne. Create your own heatmaps from our large data directory

Popularity: 39% [?]

With the Superbowl just a few weeks away, thought it would be interesting to take a look back on the season leading up to the play offs and player performance from a geographical perspective. The first take, summarized in this blog, focusses on selected positions from the offense side: quarterback, running back, tight end and wide receiver. Player performance is measured using total fantasy football points for the regular season (www.fftoday.com) and the hometowns of each player geocoded using latitude and longitude coordinates.

The heat maps that follow show what parts of the country the top performers for each position come from; in more technical terms, the maps are players’ hometowns weighted by fantasy football points. For football trivia buffs, some summary statistics are provided below each map. Top performing team for each position is based on average fantasy football points and top players on total points.

The complete dataset with other player attributes: college/university attended, number of years pro, division and conference, average fantasy football points for the regular season and number of games played can be found at www.geocommons.com.

Wide Receivers

Top Performers: Randy Moss (New England Patriots); Braylon Edwards (Cleveland Browns); Terrell Owens (Dallas Cowboys)

Top Performing Team: New England Patriots

Most Common Hometown State: California

Average Years Pro: 4.9

Running Backs

Top Performers: LaDainian Thomlinson (San Diego Chargers); Brian Westbrook (Philadelphia Eagles); Adrian Peterson (Minnesota Vikings)

Top Performing Team: Pittsburgh Steelers

Most Common Hometown State: Florida

Average Years Pro: 4.33

Tight Ends

Top Performers: Jason Whitten (Dallas Cowboys); Antononio Gates (San Diego Chargers); Tony Gonzalez (Kansas City Chiefs)

Top Performing Team: Dallas Cowboys

Most Common Hometown State: California

Average Years Pro: 4.6

Quarterbacks

Top Performers: Tom Brady (New England Patriots); Tony Romo (Dallas Cowboys); Drew Brees (New Orleans Saints)

Top Performing Team: New England Patriots

Most Common Hometown State: California

Average Years Pro: 6.03

Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson

Tony Romo was clearly a superstar this season but a look at his weekly fantasy football points shows a precipitous drop towards the end of the 17 weeks. Have anything to do with Jessica Simpson? Weigh in below.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Economy was the number 1 issue for Michigan Republicans and they voted in large numbers for Mr. Romney. Michigan has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the U.S. Huge job losses in manufacturing sector, mainly due to down-turn in Michigan’s auto-industry has voters worried about the future. Romney’s “optimistic” message that he would fight to bring those jobs back to Michigan resonated with voters as opposed to McCain’s “straight talk” message that the lost jobs are never coming back!

Romney vis McCain: Michigan primary vote

Note: Brighter hues = Higher vote count, Darker hues = Lower vote count

This is Romney’s first win (not including his win in the Wyoming primary) and probably saved him from dropping out of the primaries after finishing 2nd, both in Iowa and New Hampshire. McCain and Huckabee finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. With Romney’s win in Michigan, the GOP has no clear cut front runner. Romney got nearly 38.9% votes (~337,700), to McCain’s 29.7% (257,400), followed by Huckabee at 16% (~139,600).

DNC (Democratic National Committee) decided to punish Michigan for violating primary rules by moving forward its primary date. They stripped Michigan of all its delegates for the National convention. As a result, both Obama and Edwards withdrew their names, while Clinton’s name remained on the ballot and she won the primary. According to some, Clinton would have won the primary anyway.

Clinton vis Mr. Uncommitted: Michigan primary vote

Note: Brighter hues = Higher vote count, Darker hues = Lower vote count

Interestingly many who wanted to support either Obama or Edwards voted “Uncommitted”. Clinton won more than 55% vote (~327,300) compared to 40% vote for Mr. “Uncommitted” (~236,900). And much of the “Uncommitted” vote came from African Americans and young voters according to the exit polls. This does not bode well for the Clinton camp, as the Democratic primaries move south where African-Americans are a major constituency. More on this in the future blogs.

In the meanwhile you may want to explore all of the maps shown above at Geocommons. Search with keywords “Michigan” or “Primary” to discover dynamic, interactive maps with zoom-in and pan.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Clinton’s come-from-behind stunning victory in the New Hampshire Primary makes her the New Comeback Kid. Below is a heatmap of spatial distribution of Clinton’s votes by cities/towns and places in the southern New Hampshire.

We at FortiusOne further analyzed voting patterns to find spatial distribution of where Obama, the New Kid on the block won more votes than Clinton in New Hampshire primary.

Explore the interactive heatmaps along with tons of data on Presidential politics on Geocommons.

Popularity: 12% [?]