Part of the disparity between Cali and other less populated areas is a lack of programs at a fair amount of High School. For example, most of the inner city schools in LA don't have wrestling teams.
I work with a guy who wrestled free and Greco as a youth, but had to give it up because the school he was slated to attend didn't have wrestling and neither did the neighboring schools.
More than most areas of the country, football and basketball reign supreme in Cali. Look at the number of pros in both sports from CA. Long Beach Poly boasts more NFL football player alumni than any other HS in the country. Many throughout the state still think of wrestling as "And whatcha gonna do bruther, when the 24" pythons run wild on you?!" and have little or no knowledge of actual wrestling. In the Midwest at least there is local wrestling coverage on the radio or local TV. Here in Cali, we have nothing Jon Snow.
Almost everyone I know does fantasy football with huge draft parties and guys obsess about players and root against their favorite teams sometimes, because they have a guy on their fantasy team who plays for the other team. But, I am somehow viewed as the weirdo for loving wrestling.
The OC used to be a hotbed for wrestling, but now as Chief said, its Northern Cali with Buchanan and Clovis being nationally ranked year in and year out and being located less than 4 miles from each other.
Plenty of superstar athletes that choose other sports exclusively or only wrestle part of the year and do other sports the rest of the year is another factor I believe
