OMAHA (KMTV) — Not only do local private schools battle it out on the field and the courts but also when it comes to catching the eye of potential student-athletes.
"Everybody's upping their athletic facilities," said Meg Brudney, Duchesne Academy Head of School. "It's a really important part of a high school experience."
With the help of donations and five million dollars in state grant money, Omaha Duchesne Academy will break ground this fall on a new athletic facility that will include a new weight room as well as a turf field for a girls' soccer team that is a consistent state power.
"The focus currently is tenfold when I was a student-athlete," said Lauren Mueller, Duchesne soccer coach. "Just even the facilities and the strides that we've made since the late 90's, early 2000's to now is fantastic but it's also become apparent we need to take it to the next level."
Meanwhile, over at Omaha Marian, the Crusaders are also making many renovations that include improvements to the softball field as well as a new indoor golf practice facility, with those projects partially funded by three million dollars in state grant money.
"I do think it matters when kids," Marian athletic director Rochelle Rohlfs. "When it comes down to it, and they're making their choices of high school, I think there's a lot factors. And we always hope that the academics is first and our facilities now have that look that it's not just about what we offer on the inside but you can see it on the outside too."
Creighton Prep is also putting its three million dollars in state grant aid to use by building a track on which it'll be able to host meets on campus for the first time.
"Extracurricular activities aren't the most important thing we do here but they're often the most visible," said Dr. Dan Schinzel, Prep's athletic director.
Skutt Catholic is currently renovating its tennis courts and put down new turf on its football and baseball fields in the past five years.
"Facilities are very important to us," said Skutt Catholic athletic & activities director Donn Kasner. "We know that kids come here because of our activities. There are other reasons but we know that there's a large percent of our population that come here because of our activities program. So we want to make sure we have facilities that make them proud."
But not all school administrators we spoke with feel like it's a facilities arms race against each other.
"I think part of the reason your'e seeing so many facility upgrades is just because a lot of these schools in the Metro core are at that age, where things have aged out," Schinzel said. "I wouldn't say there's any kind of arms race. That's probably a little much but you want to have facilities that are modern and that are conducive to letting kids reach their potential, which is what we do here."
In the meantime, private schools across the Metro will continue to up their game when it comes to looking out for the future of their athletic programs.
"Competition is good," Kasner said. "You see another school do something and they see us do something. They walk into our gym and see the scorevision scoreboard or new bleachers or a new gym floor and that makes them go back to the drawing board, as it does us. So I think that's a good thing."
