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Homecoming at Houston’s Lee High School is a social highlight of the year -- much like everywhere else in football-crazed Texas. Except here, the sport is soccer, both boys’ and girls’ teams play, and it’s held in February instead of the fall.

The school, which had few Hispanic students when it opened in 1962 as Robert E. Lee High School, halted football in 2000 because of waning interest, said Steve Amstutz, Lee’s principal for 10 years before leaving last year. Lee restarted a team in 2010, though soccer -- futbol in Spanish -- is the dominant sport among a student body of 2,000 that’s now about 75 percent Hispanic, he said.

“Lee is truly a reflection of U.S. immigration policy,” said Amstutz, who now leads a nonprofit that sends low-income students to elite summer camps and programs.

While open immigration stances have drawn fire in Texas and other states, the transformation of the school reflects a national shift that’s likely to redefine the way Americans view Hispanics, whose importance as workers and consumers will grow as the society ages, said Jose Legaspi, whose Legaspi Co. in Montebello, California, owns nine shopping centers.

“The business community has realized for a long time that Hispanics are a young demographic force that is a positive for the U.S.,” said Legaspi, who has developed Hispanic-oriented properties for 32 years. “That’s the reality. We deal with it, and we move on.” READ MORE