Good sport.(The Goodness Of America)

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 ...