Yea it’s like anything - comes in cycles - there will be years with major competition- then there are those years that are “down”
Now this will age me, but I can remember when TC Williams and West Springfield were state level good back in the early 70s - and this is back when only ONE team represented their region at UHall - and both those teams were fortunate to even win their regions - the competition was fierce.
This was also back when there were less classifications - not everyone got in!
And your reward for getting to the state tournament was a team that was just as good as you!