‘It makes my heart smile’: Fair brothers team up to push Collegiate football to 4-0
.jpg "The Fair brothers scored all four touchdowns in Collegiate’s 31-10 victory over Hesston on Friday. Wesley (left) is a sophomore quarterback, while Michael (right) is a senior receiver.")
One year ago, it was Michael Fair scoring touchdowns and receiving the glory as Collegiate’s star quarterback.
But after tearing the labrum in both shoulders, Fair was unable to play quarterback for this season, his senior year, and switched to wide receiver in a role reversal with his younger brother, Wesley, a sophomore who is now the quarterback after being an all-league receiver last season catching balls from Michael.
On Friday, the Fair brothers teamed up for all four touchdowns in Collegiate’s 31-10 victory at Hesston in a battle between previously unbeaten teams. Wesley Fair rushed for 150 yards with three touchdowns and threw for another, a 31-yard score to his older brother for their first touchdown connection of this season.
Through Collegiate’s 4-0 start, Wesley Fair has racked up more than 600 rushing yards and accounted for 14 touchdowns.
“I loved playing quarterback, but after my injuries I just wanted to stay on the field and help my team win,” Michael Fair said. “It’s cool to be on the other side, catching the balls now. Wesley is doing a great job. He’s killing it.”
“That’s my brother, I love him,” Wesley Fair added. “He’s got my back and I’ve got his.”
For some seniors, seeing their younger brother replace them and excel in the role could lead to some jealousy. Not in the Fair household. According to Collegiate coach Troy Black, Michael has been Wesley’s No. 1 supporter since the day he was named starter.
“Michael is just a great, great kid,” Black said. “He’s a great leader, a great teammate, and Michael just wants to win. He comes from great parents. We’re lucky to have kids like that in our program.”
When Wesley faced his first bout of adversity as starting quarterback last week in a game against Rose Hill, it was Michael who was in Wesley’s ear on the sidelines, being the calming influence and urging him to put his mistakes behind him. Sure enough, after struggling with turnovers, Wesley was able to rally Collegiate in a come-from-behind effort to win 34-31 in overtime.
“It’s really cool because when I make mistakes and I get mad, he’s always there to calm me down and keep lifting me up,” Wesley said. “He’s always there for me.”
It was moments like that which Jason Fair, their father, will always cherish watching his sons — Quentin, Wesley’s twin brother, is also a sophomore on the team — play for the Spartans.
“As a parent, that’s what you look forward to the most is character and them loving each other,” Jason Fair said. “It’s emotional and watching that from the stands, oh my goodness, it makes my heart smile.”
The Fair family was doing a lot of smiling on Friday.
After a stalemate in the first half that saw Collegiate take a 3-0 lead into halftime, the Spartans scored the game’s first touchdown with 4:05 remaining in the third quarter when Wesley Fair finished off a long drive with a fourth-down conversion from four yards out.
The sophomore was drilled en route to the end zone and was slow to get up. At 6-foot-2 and a wiry 177 pounds, Fair doesn’t look like the prototypical workhorse of an offense. But Black says Wesley Fair is one of the toughest kids on the team, evident by him returning the next drive and finishing the night with another 25 carries.
“We knew Wesley was a super-tough kid by the things we’ve seen in practice,” Black said. “And then in basketball last season, he wasn’t in the top five, but he ended up there at the end of the season. If you play basketball for coach (Mitch) Fiegel, then you’re tough. He was the dirty worker. He would play defense, get the rebounds, guard the bigger guys. He’s just a competitive dude.”
With the game still on the line early in the fourth quarter, as Collegiate clung to a one-score lead, Wesley Fair broke the game open on a crucial fourth-and-1 play. Hesston sent its linebackers to the middle thinking quarterback sneak, only for Fair to run a quarterback sweep around the left end and break loose for a 61-yard touchdown.
Less than two minutes later, after a Hesston turnover on downs, the Fair brothers helped seal the win for Collegiate. Wesley dropped back and fired a quick pass to his brother, Michael, running a slant pattern over the middle — his only completion of the night — Michael caught the ball, shed the tackle, and ran for a 31-yard touchdown to give the Spartans an insurmountable 24-3 lead.
“That was a special, special moment,” Jason Fair said. “I was just thinking in the stands that this is something that they are going to have together for a long time.”
This story was originally published September 26, 2020 at 12:13 AM.
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