Nina Schiks is the last remaining member of the defunct college soccer program at Mississippi Valley State University. She is also one of two kickers on the college football team from Europe.
It is a unique dynamic for a Historically Black College and University located in the deep South.
Most of the college football team is from the state and most of the team is Black. Not Schiks!
What is Mississippi Valley State University?
Founded in 1950 as Mississippi Vocational College, the public university became known as Mississippi Valley State University in 1975. It was actually created by the state legislature to delay the legal integration of public education.
The politicians recognized that legal segregation of public education was in danger because of the increasing amount of legal challenges. (Segregation was eventually deemed unconstitutional in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education.) They created the Mississippi Vocational College to attract African-American applicants who might otherwise apply to the state’s premier whites-only institutions like Southern Miss, Mississippi State and Ole Miss. The goal was to keep them separate.
All of this goes to say that Mississippi Valley State University is rooted in race. It enrolls approximately 2,300 students today on campus in rural Itta Bena— an old (agricultural cotton) town.
Somewhere around 55% of the student population is female to 45% male with 75% of students from the Magnolia State. The demographic breakdown at Mississippi Valley State leans heavy toward its HBCU roots.
- Black of African American: ~90%
- White: ~2%
- Hispanic or Latino: ~2%
- Unknown/Other: ~5%
Nina Schiks and Luka Sari are in the 2% that is White. One is a senior, the other is a junior.
Nina Schiks and Luka Sari are European specialists on an HBCU college football team.
I only mention the student breakdown to emphasize the rarity of a White student. Especially those who are from Europe.
There are only five White players on the football team. Two of them are long snappers, one of them is an offensive lineman, two of them are kickers.
Nina Schiks and Luka Sari are the only two kickers on the roster. The former, a junior, hails from The Netherlands. The latter, a senior, hails from Serbia. Lets focus on Schiks. Her story is even more unique.
Shicks originally enrolled at Mississippi Valley State as a soccer player. She also played tennis for the Delta Devils. And then she made history as the first female football player in the program’s storied history at the beginning of last season.
The university later announced in October that its women’s soccer program would cease to exist. Shicks decided to stick around even though her primary sport was discontinued and became one of five women in history to score a point during a Division I college football game.
Now she is one of two kickers on the roster in total. If Sari can’t go, Schiks is the next (wo)man up!