Dorchester Times: Paper: The Dimming Of Nebraska's Friday Night Lights

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Paper: The Dimming Of Nebraska's Friday Night Lights

One of the biggest stories of 2013 was the loss of DHS' football team, marking the first season since 1948 our school didn't have a team of its own.

But Dorchester is far from alone in this story. Rural Nebraska high school football is suffering a noticeable decline, border to boarder. The Omaha World-Herald recently ran a well-written story profiling small-town football and its shrinking numbers.

Nebraska's declining rural population has had a dramatic impact on high school football, according to the World-Herald. Since 1983, Nebraska's total number of football programs has dropped by more than 20%.

And while Dorchester's loss of a football team is temporary, we hope, many schools in western Nebraska and northeast Nebraska are halting their programs for good. The further a community is from Lincoln or Omaha, the tougher the odds. Every mile counts.

The story looks at Lindsay Holy Family as its example. In 1980, Holy Family had 336 students in grades 1-12. In 2003, enrollment had dropped to 201. Now it's 98, including only 16 high school boys. The cause?

» Advanced machinery allows farmers to work 10 times as many acres as their fathers did. The demand for help in small towns isn't what it used to be.

» Families choose two or three kids rather than six or nine. Kindergarten classes are consistently smaller than senior classes.

» The ebb and flow of rural economics leads to generation gaps. During the '80s, for instance, times got so tough that small farmers moved away.

» The lure of cities like Lincoln and Omaha, two hours east. More high school graduates go to college and don't come back.

» Decreased participation rates in football. Maybe it's the fear of injury. Maybe it's more extracurricular alternatives. Either way, fewer kids are playing.

And the article details those familiar stories of what happens whens schools try consolidation.

"Community rivalries aren't as nasty anymore. But there's still bad blood, mostly among parents. (P)artnerships have been ruined because towns can't agree on uniform colors or mascots or where to play home games. Elba and North Loup-Scotia broke up and the latter had to cancel its season. Greeley-Wolbach split with Cedar Rapids and will join North Loup-Scotia. Now Cedar Rapids is merging with Spalding, leaving Spalding Academy on its own. It's like a homecoming dance. You don't want to be without a date. You also don't want to give up independence before necessary. A small town's greatest fear is losing the high school."

See the World-Herald's story by clicking here.

1 comment:

AnonymousDecember 27, 2013 at 12:05 PM
This article makes perfect sense. Every one needs to read this!
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."