Kids do the most honorable things

Sporting News, The, Nov 17, 2003 by Dave Kindred

Louis Haasis, the quarterback's father, knew his son's team had lost. "We were putting things away to leave," he said. Then, from his seat in the bleachers, he noticed an odd thing as his son took the game's last snap: "Their players were back too far." Defenders were 20 yards off the line of scrimmage.

What happened on that last play quickly became an Illinois controversy that grew into a national test of scruples: What would you do if you set a passing record with the help of the other team?

Nate Haasis, 17 and a senior at Springfield's Southeast High School, knew his last pass had come under odd circumstances.

The other team's defenders not only backed away from the line; they didn't defend at all, they just watched. Haasis tossed the ball 5 yards. The receiver ran another 32.

That part was odd, too. The receiver ran with no one chasing him. A newspaperman says the coach sent a messenger to the press box late in the game to ask about Haasis' yardage totals and then moved to a spot on the sidelines to mark the yardage needed for the record. The receiver ran out of bounds at the coach's feet.

Because the quarterback's team was trailing, 42-20, the play meant nothing in terms of winning and losing. Southeast would finish with a 4-5 record, out of the state playoffs. The play meant something only in the record books. The 37 yards made Haasis the all-time leading passer in his conference, with 5,006 career yards. He became the 12th quarterback in Illinois high school history to pass for more than 5,000 yards.

Immediately after the game in which Haasis completed only seven of 23 passes but racked up 229 passing yards, the quarterback told reporter Robert Burns of the State Journal-Register of Springfield, Ill., what he thought of the record.

"It means a lot to me. A lot," Haasis said.

Well.

Soon enough, Nate Haasis learned the truth of the adage that you should be careful of what you wish for because you might get it.

The record that meant a lot of satisfaction that afternoon came to mean a lot of misery.

It began the next morning when the State Journal-Register carried this headline over Burns' game story:

5,006 *

SE lets Cahokia score so Haasis can set record

Both the winning and losing coaches told Burns they'd agreed to a deal that would give Haasis the record.

"I've known Nate since he was in the seventh grade," the Southeast coach, Neal Taylor, said. "And he was leaning toward going to a different school, and he and his parents told me that he went to Southeast because of me. And when someone does a nice gesture like that, it deserves a nice gesture hack."

So with 30 seconds to play against a Cahokia team controlling the ball, Taylor called timeout. He walked to midfield, calling over Cahokia coach Antwyne Golliday. He proposed the deal. Southeast would allow Cahokia to score if Cahokia would allow Haasis the yardage necessary for the record.

"I had my guys put their arms in their jerseys so they couldn't tackle," Golliday told Burns.

Cahokia led, 30-6, after three quarters. But Haasis made it 30-20 with two touchdown passes early in the fourth quarter, one of 45 yards, one 47. After Cahokia scored with 7 1/2 minutes to play, it dominated play--until the deal.

The deal smelled. Records are made to be broken, not given away; games are competitions, not arrangements. A Monday morning radio sports talk show stirred up such criticism that Taylor drove to the radio station to make his case.

He failed. "Neal cried on the air for an hour," said Jim Ruppert, the Springfield sports editor. "The next day, on another show, he cried for a half-hour." Ruppert's summary: "Neal's a good guy who did the wrong thing, but for the right reason." Louis Haasis said the firestorm grew more intense every day. "There was a lot of negative pressure Sunday, then Monday it got worse, and Tuesday even worse." Finally, he heard his son say, "I wish I'd never set the record."

So, three days after the game, Nate Haasis decided what needed to be done. In a letter to the conference president, he wrote: "While I admittedly would like to have passed the record, as I think most high school quarterbacks would, I am requesting that the Central State Eight does not include this pass in the record books. Reaching 4,969 yards required a lot of cooperation and hard work from my teammates. I do not wish to diminish the accomplishments that were made in the last three years."

The conference likely will erase fine record. Taylor may lose his job. Nate Haasis, a good student and 6-1, 211-pound athlete, hasn't yet decided on a college, except to say he hopes to play football.

What's certain is that with his letter Nate Haasis became a teenage symbol of integrity and sportsmanship. To quote a perplexed, confused, weary Louis Haasis, "Nate went from pond scum to saint on his way to being a god."

The tone of the father's voice suggested that the truth is somewhere in there, he's just not sure where.

DAVE KINDRED

dkindred@sportingews.com