They do recruit locally. I think the point that I and others have tried to make is that local kids are recruited but they are evaluated alongside kids from all over. The rosters of state schools reflect that. However, just looking at rosters can mislead. You can't tell who is getting money by looking at a roster. State schools are going to have more in-state "free" kids than out of state free kids.
The original issue was whether SC kids needed to play in regionally or nationally competitive leagues and programs if their college soccer aspirations were to play in-state. The person who positited that theory did it in a retrospective way, but the point is the same. The short answer is - yes.
More to your question - I think we are doing pretty well, given our size. My strong hunch is that if you were to compare our results in producing college soccer players to those states with 20% more or less than our population, you would find that we do significantly better than most.
