Socioeconomic and Racial Effects on High School Athletics in Omaha, Nebraska

Noah Keller and Michael Grieve

University of Nebraska at Omaha

Sociology 1010 – Dr. Crystal Edwards

1

Grieve and Keller

In the state of Nebraska, athletics in high school are a major component in the

education system and we see throughout the state, the performance of these athletics relying

on many sociological aspects. In Omaha, it is a very prominent aspect to the athletics. Michael

and I researched how each of these affects the athletics of many high school sports, primarily

football. We not only focused on the performance of these schools, but we also focused on the

condition these programs were in (e.g. stadium condition). This gave us more of an insight into

how these programs were not only doing record wise, but how they were keeping up with their

facilities and how much their athletics meant to them.

According to a survey done by the National Federation of State High School Associations

in 2014-2015, the amount of high school students participating in high school football (11-man,

6-man, 8-man, and 9-man) is around 1,114,253. This number is simply amazing. Over a million

of our high school students participate in the sport of football. Now along with this vast amount

of students, comes a vast amount of socioeconomic differences, racial differences, and a ton of

sociological aspects. There have been many studies done by sociologists evaluating the many

aspects of high school sports and how they relate to the sociology. As we look for answers into

how these certain sociological aspects affect and ultimately shape the athletic program of a

school, we have to ask ourselves how can we prevent this or how can we promote more

diversity among schools to improve the athletics program.

After many hours of researching and looking at the history of Omaha and high school

athletics in this area, you really get the understanding of how segregated and biased our high

schools are and how they affect athletics. I believe that in the past 50 years, Omaha has not

made any real changes to improve the athletics in Omaha or promote diversity throughout the

2

Grieve and Keller

community. On the flip side, I believe that some residents have taken this role into their own

hands. An article by Wendy Townley in the Omaha Magazine explains this very well. She

outlines how Steve Warren, a former Husker, has organized a project called D.R.E.A.M., in

which he mentors seventh- and eighth-graders to become a “man”. He teaches them respect,

responsibility, how to build relationships among people, and also peer counsels them. Along

with teaching these valuable aspects in life, he introduces his own fitness and athletic training.

This is a very good example of how a community member is taking the role of mentor and

encouraging the diversity among sports. Due to the many sociological variables that affect

athletics, Michael and I choose to evaluate how the socioeconomic status and the racial status

of an area, affect the athletics of certain programs.

Socioeconomic Status

The socioeconomic status of families and of an area, have always had an impact on all

aspects of life, but we believe that it has a prominent affect on how athletics perform and how

they are supported. We primarily looked at three areas, Omaha North, Elkhorn South, and

Omaha West. The first aspect we looked at was the Average Adjusted Gross Income of each of

these areas and we provided a chart to represent the large disparity between the three areas. If

our hypothesis is correct, Elkhorn area should be exponentially wealthier compared to the

Omaha South and Omaha North areas.

3

Grieve and Keller

Elkhorn South, NE Omaha South, NE Omaha North, NE$0

$20,000

$40,000

$60,000

$80,000

$100,000

$120,000

$140,000

Average Adjusted Gross Income (2012)

Average AGIInformation from city-data.com

As you can see, the disparity between the three areas is very diverse. As for the

numbers, Elkhorn South’s AGI is $132,007, Omaha South’s AGI is $29,769, and Omaha North’s

AGI is $22,342. As you can see, there needs to be change in this and you can see the red-lining

very clearly.

The second aspect we looked at was the conditions of each of these school’s football

fields. This gave us an insight into how much support the athletic program gets from each

community, and also the upkeep that goes on with their fields. As I cannot add pictures on this

document due to an error in Word, I have attached a hyperlink that leads to pictures of each

field.

Elkhorn South

Omaha South

Omaha North actually does not have their own football field; they actually play on

Omaha Northwest’s field.

4

Grieve and Keller

As you can see with each of these, you can see the amount of work put into each

stadium. In my opinion, Elkhorn South definitely has the nicest facility. Elkhorn South has a very

nice press box, a large amount of bleachers, and they use this as only as a football field. I don’t

see any soccer field lines, which means they only play football on this field. When it comes to

Omaha South, they have a nice field, but not nearly as nice as Elkhorn South. They have not

nearly as large of a press box, not nearly as nice of bleachers, or as many, and they also play

soccer on it. And finally, Omaha North is the saddest of the three. Obviously, the city or the

community does not embrace their football team and has forced it to play at another school’s

football field. I believe this directly correlates to the AGI that we discussed earlier. I believe that

the community of Elkhorn embraces their athletics and supports them, while Omaha South and

Omaha North are left in the dust.

The third and final aspect of our socioeconomic research is that we looked into the

championships won by each school. We looked solely at the 2014-2015 school year and

consolidated the information into how many championships each school won in this year. We

believe that this should give us an idea about how each school performs due to their support

and the economics that they are provided with to win. We included all sports, which are

baseball, basketball, cross country, football, gold, journalism, play production, soccer, softball,

speech, swimming & diving, and tennis. Also, we included both girls and boys into this. If our

hypothesis is correct, the championships should correlate with the other two aspects, the AGI

and the condition of their facilities.

5

Grieve and Keller

Elkhorn South Omaha South Omaha North0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Championships in 2014-2015

Championships in 2014-2015

As we expected, the graph correlates exactly with the other two visuals we have

provided. We can see in this, that socioeconomic status, performance, and the condition of

facilities all do correlate and can provide these students with a higher level of success followed

by a community that provides for them.

In conclusion, we have shown you that the socioeconomic status in Omaha very heavily

affects the athletics. We have shown you the large disparity in the AGI of each area to give you

a perspective of redlining and how the city of Omaha is very segregated. Following this, we

showed you that the AGI of each area definitely affects the facilities and condition of each

facility that each school has. And finally, we showed you that due to economic status and the

facilities, championships could be bought, theoretically. I believe this is a major issue in Omaha

that needs to be taken very seriously. It is holding kids that grew up in poverty-stricken areas

from growing to their potential. I believe that we need more people like Steve Warren, who

6

Grieve and Keller

promotes programs to everybody and allows people from every area of Omaha, to be able to

access their inner-self and have the feeling of achieving something spectacular.

Racial Aspect

Race and ethnicity play a large part in the make up in a given school’s identity. These

factors can intertwine with things like socioeconomic status to skew advantages in high school

athletics towards the money. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Omaha, as races are tied

to certain areas artificially. Omaha has a rich history, and went through industrialization like

most cities in early 1900’s America. This left the city open to a phenomenon known as “White

Flight” or the move of white city-dwellers to the suburbs to escape an influx of minorities. What

occurs is factory owners and already established white workers are given white collar jobs, and

are generally paid more. Minorities take the blue-collar work and are willing to be paid less. The

white majority begins to build new housing developments and move away from the urban city

into suburbs, while minorities are able to acquire the white’s older homes for cheap.

In Omaha, this led to a strong nucleus of African Americans living in an urban North

Omaha, Hispanic’s living in urban South Omaha where they procured meatpacking work, and

White’s continually expanding West. While any laws or legislation do not segregate this city, it

certainly is by the circumstances of its history and financial boundaries put in place by its racist

white ancestors. Below is a map that represents the grouping of African Americans in Omaha,

as you can see it is focused primarily in and north of the city’s urban center. The pink dots

represent each primarily black household in the Omaha area.

7

Grieve and Keller 8

Grieve and Keller

The next map represnts the population of hispanics living in Omaha, it is primarily south

of the city’s urban center.

The last map is a reprsentation of the white population in Omaha, as you can Omaha is a

predominantly white city but the population out West is much greater than either of the two

previous groups.

9

Grieve and Keller

All this plays into high school sports and racial make-ups of school districts. Out West

you have the predominantly white Millard Public Schools and Elkhorn Public Schools.

Downtown in the more urban parts of the city you have high schools like Omaha North, Omaha

Central, and Omaha South. These are schools that are much more racially diverse and have

their sports programs hindered by a few factors.

First, as previously stated in the socioeconomic piece are the financial barriers of the

schools and their students. These are families with lesser disposable income than a more

western school like Elkhorn South, and this leads to different realities needing to be faced by

the families. Kids can’t be placed in early athletic clubs and programs because the parents can’t

pay for them. This leads to an inherit disadvantage for urban student bodies. Since 2008, 4 of

10

Grieve and Keller

the past 7 state titles for Class A football have been won by a Millard school. This is a number

that causes you to dig deeper into what might be going on under the surface.

The second factor affecting success for urban schools is student interest itself. In urban

centers crime rates typically go up, as are gang violence and drug use. These minorities are

subject to the low-income realties of their environment. It is hard to succeed in school and have

genuine interest in things like sports with so many distractions present in negative

environments. This leads to students not engaging in extra curricular activities like football, and

students not attending sporting events to cheer on fellow classmate’s achievements.

So why is this important? It’s important because sports represent a certain quality of life

reflected by societies that have leisure time and organized competitions. The more time and

money invested in things like sports shows a certain kind of life only achieved when all other

needs are fulfilled, such as financial security and security. For Omaha, Nebraska there are

clearly certain areas with more time and money invested in these leisure activities than

minority groups who are struggling to stay afloat.

In essence, we can see that for Omaha, Nebraska socioeconomic status and race effect

each other hand in hand when it relates to school districts and high school athletics. Omaha’s

western schools generally dominate the urban intercity schools in high school athletics. A fusion

of passion and money would be needed to help these schools drum up interest in high school

athletics to get the student body totally engaged. Only then might we see a higher capacity for

balance between schools.

Works Cited

11

Grieve and Keller

Sources used:

http://nsaahome.org

http://www.city-data.com

http://www.nfhs.org/ParticipationStatics/ParticipationStatics.aspx/

http://omahamagazine.com/tag/sociology/

http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/journalstar.com/content/tncms/assets/v3/

editorial/c/fc/cfc44dd4-cc36-5863-b7bd-d1f5fc82a23b/50500f9e5bf40.preview-620.jpg

http://www.lra-inc.com/sites/default/files/styles/project-hero/public/projects/%3Cem%3EEdit

%20Project%3C/em%3E%20Omaha%20South%20High%20School%20Collin%20Stadium/Collin-

1.jpg?itok=l3Br98ow

http://nebraska.us.censusviewer.com/client

12