Suburban Life Athlete of the Week: Maxwell Haack, Downers Grove North, basketball, senior

Name: Maxwell Haack

Sport: Basketball

Why he was selected: Haack scored 16 points in Downers Grove North’s win over Downers Grove South in the regional semifinal and scored a game-high 19 points in the Trojans’ regional final win over Proviso East. He was selected the Athlete of the Week in an online vote. Here is his interview with Sports Editor Joshua Welge.

Welge: What was it like to win a regional on your home court?

Haack: It’s awesome. The atmosphere, the crowd, they were with us the whole time. Being able to cut down the nets in front of our fans is a dream.

Welge: So Proviso cut your team’s lead to six points in the fourth quarter, Jack [Stanton] got his fourth foul, goes to the bench, you made three really tough driving layups. What happened there?

Haack: Jack’s been one of our better players this entire year and he was struggling with fouls. Our whole team needed to come together as a team. The one play wasn’t just me. That was a good screen by [Jacob] Bozeman to get me that open look. We needed to come together as a team.

Welge: What got into you guys in the second quarter of that game? You scored 30 points.

Haack: I don’t think we played that great in the first quarter. Obviously the nerves of the regional championship kicked in in the first quarter. We sat down after the quarter and coach just said we have to play our game and that’s what got us going.

Welge: What’s this mean to you? You probably have memories of watching Downers Grove North basketball forever [his dad is a Trojans assistant and former head coach)?

Haack: Yeah, it’s awesome. My dad has been [an assistant] with this program since I was like two years old. So being able to watch the process and being able to take home a regional championship at the school is awesome to be able to bring home a championship. It’s a dream come true.