Here is an article written by Larry Bornstein, originally published in the Denver Avalanche game program for a game versus the Cleveland Force on Thursday, February 26, 1981:
Denver Avalanche MISL - Mike Haas
Though he is a native of California’s San Francisco Bay area, when Mike Haas went to Germany last fall as a member of the Dallas Tornados of the North American Soccer League, he rediscovered his soccer roots in the land of his ancestors.
“I had played only one game for Dallas during the regular NASL season,” Mike remembers of his rather inactive summer of 1980. “But when we went to tour Germany and played some exhibition games, some of the other players couldn’t go, and some others got hurt during the tour, so I ended up playing quite a bit during the seven games on the schedule. We were 3-4, but I was able to see people I knew and could speak to in their native language. It was a great experience.”
Mike Haas - Dallas Tornado NASL
Dallas Tornado NASL - 1980
Both parents of the Denver Avalanche defender were born in Germany, so Mike grew up speaking their tongue, as well as English. Because of soccer, he has been able to visit Germany a couple times, even before his exhibition-game tour with the Dallas NASL entry last fall.
“I was there with a youth team back in 1973,” recalls the 6-1, 175pound defender. “I got a lot of support and help from my two uncles, Dieter Haas, my father’s brother, and Siegfried Bancer, my mother’s brother. They were great soccer experts and have really helped me develop my own game. They convinced me how great a game this was,”
Mike is the only member of the Avalanche who had played a lot of his previous soccer in Colorado. He was a standout at Colorado College for two years. In 1978 he was named the team’s Most Valuable Player and elected to the second all-star team of the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate League. In 1979, his senior season, he made the first team. Mike came to Colorado College after two years at Skyline Junior College in San Francisco, where he was an AIIAmerica selection.
How did he end up spending his last two years of college in Colorado Springs? “I went to a soccer camp in Seattle that was run by Dave Clements,” he recalls. “Horst Richardson, the Colorado College coach, was on the staff of the camp, and he convinced me to come to his school. It was a great decision for me to go there. I got my degree in business management and I played a lot of soccer.”
As a position-minded defender, Haas rarely moves the ball upfield, in either the indoor or outdoor version of the game, and isn’t going to dazzle the record-keepers with any wild outbursts of goal-scoring. But, says Clements, the Avalanche coach, “Mike’s very disciplined and very strong. He’s a very strong tackler.
That’s his chief strength and he’s done a fine job in that area for us.” Haas says the area of indoor soccer he has had to concentrate on most is playing the ball off the boards. “Mike Ditchfield and Peter Duerden (assistant coaches) have spent a lot of time with me hitting the ball off the boards and giving me time to learn the different angles,” Mike says. “It takes a real adjustment. The best on the team at playing the ball off the boards are ‘Chelo’ (Marcelo Curi) and Timmy Walters. They seem to know just where the ball is going to come off and get to that spot right away. I’m trying to improve in that area all the time.”
MISL Wichita Wings at Denver Avalanche
Mike explains that “marking” the opposing player is more important in indoor soccer than outdoors. “If the ball gets behind you outdoors and is heading for the corners, you don’t have to worry too much because it’ll go out of bounds,” he says. “But indoors there’s no out of bounds so you have to make sure the ball doesn’t get behind you. It takes
more concentration to play indoor soccer.”
Soccer has become the Haas family sport. Mike’s two younger brothers, Ron and Steve, are coming up behind him, with Ron now starring at Skyline Junior College and Steve having already attained some acclaim in the junior high school ranks. Both are midfielders. Mike enjoys spending time with his family, and had an excellent opportunity this past January 29. The Avalanche were playing the Fog in San Francisco, and it was just five days before Mike’s 23rd birthday. The Fog haven’t been drawing too well in their first year in the Major Indoor Soccer League. But this night the Cow Palace had a good and boisterous following – for Denver.
“Several members of my family were at the game,” Mike recalls, “and Howie Maierhofer and EI Bressie and their families were there, along with a bunch of other friends of theirs. So we had a real good turnout cheering for the Avalanche. It was a fun night.”
Mike Haas - Denver Avalanche
