Across the state of Nebraska, rural communities have been forced to combine sports with other activities. There are 266 high schools across the state that can participate in 24 sports and five performing arts activities. However, in 2013, after co-oping became legal with the Nebraska School Activities Association, nearly 150 schools began to combine with other school districts because of a lack of facilities and enrollment and financial issues.
Terry Hickman, the athletic director of Mead Public Schools, has noticed that the fluctuation of male and female ratios could be the reason behind the lack of students participating in rural schools’ activities.
“About every three years or so, we see a flip in the participation numbers between male and female athletes at Mead,” Hickman said. “Because of this, we are constantly bouncing classes between sports.”
Fluctuating classes
Mead Public Schools is located twenty minutes west of Omaha. Mead is classified as a school that fluctuates between Class C1 and D2 depending on the sport and enrollment. In the early 1980s, Mead became an eight-man football team and has stayed one to the present day. Discussion of becoming a six-man team first came up in 2017 when they had 13 boys out for high school football.
The administration first considered a co-op situation, but then focused on the possibility of becoming a six-man team. While they are still an eight-man program, the idea of six-man remains on the back burner.
Hickman, who has been at Mead Public Schools for twelve years, said there were some realizations he made when accepting the job at Mead.
“I came from a Class B school, and the first thing I thought was, ‘How long am I going to have this job?’” Hickman said. “Then I realized that Mead isn’t getting small, it’s just always been a small school.”
Mead’s graduating classes have been between 20 to 25 students throughout most of their history. Balancing gender numbers affects their athletic teams more than overall enrollment.
“About every three years is when we see a switch in gender numbers,” Hickman said. “We were C2 in girls’ basketball and volleyball this year while being D2 in boys’ basketball, and in the next three years, it’ll probably be the opposite.”
Successful athletic seasons at Mead are affected by the unbalanced gender numbers. Mead’s varsity teams have proven to be more successful than its reserve and junior varsity teams in previous years.
Hickman said it is important to note the trend of lacking student-athletes in high schools. While he is unsure why more and more students are choosing not to participate, he does believe that it is starting to contribute slightly to their school system.
“I’m not quite sure why fewer and fewer students are choosing not to go out for as many sports as before, but we have had to make accommodations for those who participate in club sports, and that could be a contributing factor,” Hickman said.
As of now, Mead plans to continue with an eight-man football team and fluctuate between classes across all of their sports. When they see a continuing trend of a lack of students in each class, they will have to reconsider.
Small schools
Jeff Stauss, the assistant director at NSAA for the past 14 years, has focused on smaller schools across the state, ensuring they are still being provided for and not overlooked.
“Our goal at the NSAA is to provide the most amount of opportunities for students and high schools across Nebraska, no matter the size,” Stauss said.
While Stauss has not seen a drop in the number of participants located within rural communities, the fluctuation in opportunities has changed participation.
Last year, the NSAA added girls’ wrestling under its umbrella. Because of this, girls’ basketball has taken a downward trend. Although the number of girls participating in basketball has declined, the number of girls participating across all sports has stayed within its range because of this addition.
With girls wrestling being added, Sargent, Thedford, Blue Hill and many other smaller schools have been able to keep their numbers up.
Stauss believes early specialization has affected participation in athletics.
“Kids specializing with one sport or activity at an early age wasn’t as prevalent 10-20 years ago,” Stauss said. “Athletes and families are now trying to gain college scholarships along with a lot of other clubs and organizations that are on the rise that contribute to less and less multi-sport athletes.”
While the NSAA is struggling to find a way to counteract this, they have been showing special attention to the smaller schools that are struggling with facilities, members and opportunities.
“As someone who came from a small school, I know the struggle that smaller schools face in terms of those who oversee each activity,” Stauss said. “The people in charge of athletics, whether that’s coaches, athletic directors or teachers, wear a lot of different hats throughout each smaller school’s system. If we can try to support them in any way possible, through organizing events or offering co-op possibilities, we will.”
With close to 150 schools across the state of Nebraska co-oping, the NSAA continues to gather its committee every April. This ensures rural schools start each year with the most opportunistic activities and continue to keep kids interested in sports and other activities that fall under the umbrella of the NSAA.
While the NSAA is working to ensure positive outcomes with rural sports, specialization is still playing a major role in the lack of participation.
Rural athletes at UNK
Katie Ackermann, the head softball coach at UNK, said that out of their twenty-girl roster, only six are from rural communities across Nebraska.
“I wouldn’t say I actively look at players from rural communities, as they can be hard to find sometimes,” Ackermann said. “I typically look at players from larger schools in Nebraska because of high school [soft] ball and the larger tournaments that they offer.”
Outside of high school sports, Ackermann has also noticed the dying out of rural summer softball organizations.
“I believe some of this [decline] is due to population decline in these communities and partly due to economic challenges with travel costs and burdens for some of these players getting lessons or playing on travel teams,” Ackermann said.
Travel softball teams have become popular in the last 10 years, as well as travel basketball, volleyball and even track. However, the price tag that comes with hotel rooms, team fees, tournament fees, uniforms and equipment can be taxing on families. This is one of the disadvantages of athletes who reside in rural communities, away from the big cities that offer these teams.
“The facilities available to train in, the coaches that can give lessons and the number of teams or types of teams that players can try out on during high school and summer are nowhere near the same circumstances as larger cities,” Ackermann said.
Without the wide variety of opportunities for rural high schoolers, kids are choosing to specialize in only one sport or activity and keep up with the financial side of those activities in hopes for a college scholarship.
Population’s effect on the state
Population density could have a larger effect on Nebraska rural athletics than some may think.
From a 10-year period, 2010-2020, the population of the state grew by over 7%. Where the population grew could be telling for rural communities shrinking in general.
“In that same 10-year span, 69 counties in the state lost population, and only 8 counties grew by more than 5%,” said Dillon Cornett, a research analyst. “At the time of the 2020 Census count, Douglas and Lancaster counties increased by 13% in 10 years, while Sarpy County saw a 20% population increase since 2010.”
The Nebraska Legislature and other research analysts have looked into the ratios of rural populations versus metropolitan populations and how they’ve changed in the state since the 1900s.
“Examining the year 1900 in Nebraska, more residents lived in rural counties compared to metropolitan counties,” Cornett said. “By the 1980s, a majority of the state population resided in metro areas, and current predictions indicate a continued increase in the share of the state’s population located in metro counties.”
With the 11 most populated counties holding over 70% of Nebraska’s population, that leaves less than 550,000 spread across Nebraska’s other 82 counties.
Because of the scarcity of populations across the smaller counties in Nebraska, the opportunities, athletic events and gender numbers can fluctuate and continue to be affected each year.
The Nebraska Legislature also ran a study with the Center for Public Affairs Research about people leaving and joining Nebraska.
“CPAR estimates that, from 2010 to 2022, approximately 45,000 people moved from other states to Nebraska annually,” Cornett said. “During the same period, however, an estimated 50,000 people left Nebraska each year, which resulted in a net domestic migration loss of nearly 6,000 residents in 2021 and over 4,000 in 2022.”
With numbers dropping not only in the state, but also in rural communities, it poses the question on the length of time rural athletics will last. While most rural schools are not drastically changing, the population, migration and specialization trends are steadily working downward.
Rural athletics could look completely different in the next 10 years. With support from the NSAA, the state will continue to run operations as they’ve been doing since co-oping was adopted into the state of Nebraska.
