Late in the afternoon of March 18, 2025, it was no secret that a massive blizzard was on the horizon. In an almost frantic attempt to prepare for the upcoming disaster, Lincoln residents started to lay salt, ready their space heaters, and prepare for the worst. Parents and students started to plan for ways to safely navigate snow-covered roads and treacherous conditions. However, this feverish preparation was not shared by a select group of apeople. Hours before LPS even cancelled, followers of a certain Facebook page celebrated when they saw a post that put them at ease and made them feel confident that school would be called off. This select group knew of their good fortune for just two reasons; bagels and accordions.
The Polka Players of Nebraska (PPN) is a name that has been shrouded in mystery and curiosity for years. Some have heard the name before, some know of their affiliation to LPS snow days, yet most remain unaware of who they are and what they do. So who are they? What do they do?
Though the organization is an enigma in the Lincoln community, the basic facts are still widely available, and it’s these facts that draw controversy to the topic.
The PPN are not an actual group of Polka players, as they’ve never had a performance. Instead, the only thing they do is announce show cancellations on their public Facebook page, oftentimes in the form of short blurbs. For example, on Wednesday, February 11, 2025, in the early morning hours, they posted: “We have decided to cancel Bagels and Accordions for Wednesday.” And, sure enough, just a few hours later, LPS officially cancelled school for the next day.
The correlation between PPN cancellations and LPS school closure days spans years, and with incredible accuracy. In fact, this seemingly small polka group has successfully predicted the last 19 weather-related school closures with 100% accuracy, spanning all the way back to January 2021.
PPN’s Facebook page has 771 followers, several of whom are LPS and even LSE staff members. On January, 13, 2021, the PPN Facebook page posted a happy birthday shoutout to Lincoln Southeast English teacher Chris DeAmbrose.
According to DeAmbrose, he began to notice the Polka Players of Nebraska in 2018 while teaching at Schoo Middle School. At first, the Facebook posts were random and uncoordinated. Then, he and a handful of other teachers began to notice the correlation between the posts and LPS school closure.
“We thought it was hilarious, so we kept an eye on it,” he said. “Everytime it seemed like there was going to be a cancellation, we would look for their [PPN] meeting to be cancelled. That was our most reliable source, and we just went by what the polka players said for a while.”
Additionally, aside from their public Facebook account, the only other evidence that they exist is an obscure website, which boasts phrases like “we have been known to forecast weather pretty accurately, especially with school closures” and “The Polka Players of Nebraska: good times in good weather!” These phrases have drawn speculation on how this group is so accurate in their predictions and how they manage to make and publicly post these predictions before LPS announces cancellation.
Dr. John Skretta, the interim superintendent for Lincoln Public Schools, said the district is aware of the group, calling them “renowned, very highly regarded people”.
Even after acknowledging the existence and weather-related abilities of the group, Skretta denies any affiliation between LPS and PPN.
All of these parallels certainly have drawn suspicions among students and staff alike, and though these suspicions have been formally denied, the sheer accuracy and consistency of their predictions have led to many unofficial predictions and theories about who’s behind this group and their purpose.
An organization with a 100% accuracy rate in predicting the last 19 weather-related school closures is noteworthy in those numbers alone. It can be reasonably assumed that seeing a post from the PPN announcing a cancellation of one of their polka shows is a very strong indication that LPS will follow suit, and perhaps this organization can be used as a tool by LPS students, teachers, and families in the future.
