You have to remember there were only a handful of high school level u.s. regional tournaments around and the NHSCA tournament was probably the most well known/only? national tournament. But that tournament originally, and correct me if I'm wrong, was only for high school Seniors after the high school season was over. Not just anyone could get into that one either, I think you had to be a top 3 placewinner from your state tournament. I could be very wrong but it's 35 years now since it has been running without pause and I can't find/remember all the guidelines.
All that to say, it was very hard to know how good guys really were in the 80's, 90's and even early 2000's, especially if they came from states that weren't PA, CA, NY, NJ, Iowa, OK and a couple others.