Interesting blog post about the racial make-up of Arizona HS football teams. Author concludes that the whiter the school the better the team. Something we here at CF have asserted for a while.
Race and HS football in Arizona
In Arizona, schools tend to gravitate to one of two poles: White schools or Hispanic schools. Overall Whites make up 45% and Hispanics make up 41% of all students, but individual schools tend to gravitate towards one pole or the other (although there are a few schools that stand out for their remarkable racial balance, listed at the end of this article***).
Blacks and Indians are small minorities in Arizona, each making up 6% of all students, but they are distributed in totally different ways. Blacks are distributed in single digit percentages almost everywhere, except for a band of schools in southeast Phoenix and Tempe where they jump into double digits. There are no schools in Arizona with a black majority. Indians, on the other hand, are congregated in high percentages in a small number of schools on or near Indian reservations.
The overall rule for high school football is plain: correlation between victory and high percentage of White students is pretty much airtight. I am tempted to call it an iron law. The Whiter the school, the better the football team. A 15% advantage in White student population almost guarantees a football victory.
Race and HS football in Arizona
In Arizona, schools tend to gravitate to one of two poles: White schools or Hispanic schools. Overall Whites make up 45% and Hispanics make up 41% of all students, but individual schools tend to gravitate towards one pole or the other (although there are a few schools that stand out for their remarkable racial balance, listed at the end of this article***).
Blacks and Indians are small minorities in Arizona, each making up 6% of all students, but they are distributed in totally different ways. Blacks are distributed in single digit percentages almost everywhere, except for a band of schools in southeast Phoenix and Tempe where they jump into double digits. There are no schools in Arizona with a black majority. Indians, on the other hand, are congregated in high percentages in a small number of schools on or near Indian reservations.
The overall rule for high school football is plain: correlation between victory and high percentage of White students is pretty much airtight. I am tempted to call it an iron law. The Whiter the school, the better the football team. A 15% advantage in White student population almost guarantees a football victory.
