Harvard goes, grows west with dozen California natives on roster

Patrick McColl of Los Altos, Calif., earned three Ivy League Player of the Week awards last month.

After guiding regional Division 3 power Trinity College for 22 seasons, Bill Decker took over as Harvard’s head coach in 2013 and set out to expand the program’s geographic reach as one of his major goals.

That’s no surprise for any Ivy League institution as their rich academic and athletic programs attract student-athletes from all over the country and world, so there was no initial rhyme or reason as to how this would be done and from where his future Crimson would come.

After all, it’s not hard for any coach to sell a school such as Harvard. Of course, attracting New Englanders remains important. The Crimson roster includes four natives of both Massachusetts and Connecticut this season, and more are on the way.

But California has turned out to be the Crimson’s most popular recruiting hub during this current decade. Twelve players on this year’s roster are Golden State natives, which represents a rapid increase since Decker inherited a roster that didn’t include a single one.