Cair Paravel senior Noah Hastert (left) forces a fumble earlier this season against St. Mary's Academy. [File photo by Rex Wolf/TSN]
By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Noah Hastert knows that players who play football at small high schools, especially at the Eight-Man level, often face an uphill battle to get noticed by college recruiters.
But the Cair Paravel Latin star felt like if he just continued to work hard and showed what he could do, colleges would take notice.
In the midst of an outstanding senior season for the 10-0 Lions, that has proved to be the case, with multiple schools showing interest in the 6-foot-6, 225-pound receiver/defensive end.
"I think it does hurt (playing Eight-Man) in some ways, but if you just go out there and show what you can do, they will find you eventually and they'll see what you can do,'' said Hastert, who will close out his high school career in Saturday's 1 p.m. Kansas Christian Athletic Association championship game against St. Mary's Academy at Highland Park.
Noah Hastert
Hastert did what he could do to speed up that process, attending several football camps leading into this season, and recruiting interest has continued to ramp up.
"Over the summer I went to like five, six football camps to get my name out there a little bit,'' Hastert said. "It's mainly been MIAA -- Washburn, Pitt State, Emporia State, Central Missouri -- teams like that.''
Hastert has the size that colleges like in a receiver and has the stats to go with that size, catching 41 passes for 870 yards and an amazing 21 touchdowns.
"I think it's really fun,'' Hastert said of the Eight-Man game. "It's fast-paced and there's a lot of big plays.''
Defensively, Hastert has been in on 34 tackles (25 solo) with 14.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks while causing two fumbles and recovering four fumbles.
As a team Cair Paravel has outscored its opposition by a 560-78 margin while not having a game closer than 42 points.
"We knew we had the pieces,'' said Hastert, also a basketball standout for the Lions. "We have a lot of athletes and I think we just came out and worked as a team and practiced hard and worked hard throughout the summer and got reps and I thought we could for sure do this.''
Now Hastert and Cair Paravel are aiming to put a storybook ending on a storybook season.
"It would be amazing and that's the goal,'' Hastert said. "My sixth grade year, the first year to start off, we went defeated for the season. To end it undefeated would be awesome.
"My first year here we never won a game, so it would be nice to come out here and win it. That's obviously our dream and we haven't won (the KCAA title) in a while, too, so that would be great.''
