An emerging body of research in the sociology of sports has captured how black males' academic identities become subsumed under an athletic identity. This body of research, unfortunately, focuses heavily on black male students at the college or university level and offers little empirical insights that probe academic and athletic related issues from black male high school student-athletes. Especially ignored is the significance of place. Sociological and anthropological findings from a multi-regional investigation in communities and schools in the suburban South and urban Midwest capture how region, community, and schooling context shape black male student athletes' identities, their experiences, and aspirations. Implications suggest the need for comparative investigations that foreground place to understand the complexity of black male student-athletes' identities.