Good sport.

Southeast High School in Springfield, Illinois, is one of eight schools that comprise the state's Central State Eight Conference (CS8) football league. Their team name is the Spartans.

On October 25, the Spartans ended their disappointing season (four wins, five losses) with a 42-20 non-conference loss to the Cahokia High School Comanches of Cahokia, Illinois. During the game, senior Spartan quarterback Nate Haasis, 17, finished his stellar high school career by lifting his three-year total passing yardage to 4,969, the second-highest ever in the CS8 and the 14th best in state history.

During the last few seconds of the game, however, events transpired without his knowledge that embroiled the 6-foot-1, 211-pound gridiron standout in an unfortunate controversy instigated by his well-meaning coach, Neal Taylor. Taylor wanted to help Haasis break the CS8 passing record of 4,998 yards and also become only the 12th high school quarterback in state history to exceed 5,000 yards.

With about 30 seconds left on the clock, and the Comanches holding the ball and an insurmountable 35 to 20 lead, Taylor called time out and huddled with Comanches coach Antwyne Golliday. In a last-ditch attempt to help Haasis break the record, Taylor suggested (and Golliday agreed to) an ethically flawed arrangement whereby the Spartans would allow the Comanches to score another touchdown so the Spartans could get the ball back. The Comanches would then call off their defensive dogs and allow Haasis to complete an unhindered pass of sufficient length to exceed the 5,000-yard mark.

The Comanches scored as planned, then kicked off out of bounds to preserve time on the clock. And with eight seconds to go, Haasis dropped back and threw the final pass of his high school career to a teammate who ran out of bounds after a 37-yard gain. The play raised Haasis' career total to 5,006 yards.

Haasis, though unaware of the arrangement, had been puzzled by the ease with which the Comanches had scored. He later recalled about the final play, "I noticed that something was a little fishy when I saw that [Comanche] defenders were not even paying attention to the play, talking to each other, not even paying attention to what I was doing."

In postgame interviews, coaches Taylor and Golliday readily acknowledged the deal they had struck. Though there is nothing in the rules requiring defenders to actually defend, especially if their coach instructs them to back off, the resulting furor over the scheme's obvious ethical flaws generated both statewide and national controversy and threatened to unfairly tarnish young Nate Haasis' own reputation.

Coach Taylor, who broke down and wept during some radio interviews, insisted: "My intention was just to get Nate's name in the record book. It was just an attempt to do something good. And no good came of it." He told the October 29 State Journal-Register, "I'm just sick about this," adding, "I don't know what my future has in store for me," but "for now it does feel like the end of the world." A few days later, he resigned as coach. The Springfield School Board accepted his resignation on November 9. He will continue to teach science at a middle school in the district.

As for Haasis, he faced a decision either to let his new record stand, or to literally set the record straight. So, on October 28, Haasis wrote to CS8 director Charles Hoots, asserting: "[I]n 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." He would, he asserted, "like to preserve the integrity and sportsmanship of a great conference for future athletes." Admitting that he "would like to have passed the record, as I think most high school quarterbacks would," he also pointed out that compiling his legitimate 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."

On November 12, the CS8 executive council unanimously approved his request. In a written statement, Hoots asserted that "Nate's action speaks well for his personal integrity," and "reveals that sportsmanship is alive and well in the CS8 Conference."

A few days earlier, after learning of Haasis' letter to CS8 officials, Bruce Brown, author of Teaching Character Through Sport, told USA Today: "What impressed me was the way he carried it beyond himself and showed integrity for the league and his teammates."

On November 7, ABC World News Tonight selected Nate Haasis as its "Person of the Week." His mother, Sharon, told ABC that she was "proud that the record wasn't that important to him." His father, Louis, was glad to see the values taught in their home being put into action: "[I]t's good to know that some of that has sunk in."