Los Jets of Siler City, NC celebrate 20th anniversary of historic soccer championship

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Los Jets of Siler City, NC celebrate 20th anniversary of historic soccer championship

By Leoneda Inge,

Rachel McCarthy

Published November 26, 2024 at 10:00 AM EST

Twenty years ago, the Jets (or Los Jets) of Jordan-Matthews High School in Siler City won the North Carolina 1-A men鈥檚 high school soccer championship, becoming the first predominantly Latino team to win a statewide North Carolina high school championship in any sport.

The path to the championship was fraught: from the resistance organizers faced getting the team started, to the racist taunts the teenage players faced once they finally got on the field. But win, they did.

Leoneda Inge, Paul Cuadros and Octavio Hernandez

Paul Cuadros was the coach of that championship team 鈥� he鈥檚 also a journalism professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and he wrote a book about their journey: A Home on the Field: How One Championship Soccer Team Inspires Hope for the Revival of Small Town America.

Paul Cuadros still coaches the Jets today. He and former player Octavio Hernandez talk to co-host Leoneda Inge about the barriers they faced getting the team off the ground, the challenges many Jets faced as immigrants, and the legacy of that championship team.

Guests

Paul Cuadros, coach, Jordan-Matthews High School soccer team, and author of A Home on the Field: How One Championship Soccer Team Inspires Hope for the Revival of Small Town America.

Octavio Hernandez, former player, Jordan-Matthews High School soccer team

Tags

Due South Soccer

Leoneda Inge

Leoneda Inge is the co-host of 瓜神app's "Due South." Leoneda has been a radio journalist for more than 30 years, spending most of her career at 瓜神app as the Race and Southern Culture reporter. Leoneda鈥檚 work includes stories of race, slavery, memory and monuments. She has won "Gracie" awards, an Alfred I. duPont Award and several awards from the Radio, Television, Digital 瓜神app Association (RTDNA). In 2017, Leoneda was named "Journalist of Distinction" by the National Association of Black Journalists.

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Rachel McCarthy

Rachel McCarthy is a producer for "Due South." She previously worked at 瓜神app as a producer for "The Story with Dick Gordon." More recently, Rachel was podcast managing editor at Capitol Broadcasting Company where she developed narrative series and edited a daily podcast. She also worked at "The Double Shift" podcast as supervising producer. Rachel learned about audio storytelling at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Prior to working in audio journalism, she was a research assistant at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC.

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