Person of the Week: Nate Haasis

Nov. 7, 2003 -- Nate Haasis, star quarterback for the Southeast High School Spartans in Springfield, Ill., was a champion for a moment — until he discovered that it had been too easy.

During the last game of Haasis' high school career, on Oct. 25, he was 30 yards short of reaching the conference record for most passing yards in a career. But the Spartans were not winning — in fact Cahokia High, their opponent, was 16 points ahead in the final minute.

Haasis was pretty well thought of in the league, and with less than a minute to play, during the last time out and without the quarterback's knowledge, the coaches made a deal. The Spartans would allow Cahokia to score one more time. The Spartans would get the ball back on a kickoff, and Cahokia would let Haasis pass for the record.

"I noticed that something was a little fishy when I saw that Cahokia defenders were not even paying attention to the play, talking to each other, not even paying attention to what I was doing," said Haasis, 17.

Haasis went back for the final pass of his high school career, and it went into the record books at 37 yards. So what did he think then?

"I was more upset we lost than anything. I really didn't think about the record or what happened at the end of the game until I got home and then all weekend I started thinking about it and felt a little awkward about what happened," he said.

The word of what happened began to spread. The local newspaper said the coaches were encouraging cheating. And Haasis sat down to write a letter to the director of the Central State Eight Conference. He didn't want to win the record that way, he says.

"I felt disrespectful to the other players who had played football before me. I know teammates fought with me as hard as they could to get me every yard I had and it just didn't feel right the way I got it," Haasis said.

This is what his letter to the conference director said: "Dear Mr. Hoots, in respect to my teammates, and past and present football players of the Central State Eight, it is my hope that this pass is omitted from any conference records. … I would like to preserve the integrity and sportsmanship of a great conference for future athletes."