updated 12:12 p.m. ET Dec. 25, 2004

SILER CITY, N.C. - Coach Paul Cuadros recalls the early games, when good ol’ boys in the stands would taunt his fledgling high school soccer team because it was made up mostly of Hispanic immigrants.

“Stupid Mexicans,” they’d holler in a mocking Spanish accent. “Andale, andale!”

Cuadros would tell his Jordan-Matthews High School Jets to respond by running up the score.

“We tried our best to embarrass them so they can eat their own words,” said player Luis Arellano.

The Jets reached the second round of the state playoffs that first year and went a step further last season.

This year, they won the state championship, the first time a predominantly Hispanic high school team has taken a title in any sport in North Carolina.

In a state where the Hispanic population has quadrupled over the past decade — the fastest growth rate in the nation — the Jets’ 21-3-2 championship season has helped bridge the cultural gap in a rural area still coming to grips with waves of immigrants who arrive to work in chicken plants, textile mills and farm fields.

“The success of the team right away changed some people’s perceptions,” Cuadros said. “It’s hard not to like a winner.”

Chatham County Commissioner Tommy Emerson, a 1957 graduate of Jordan-Matthews whose family roots in the area stretch back to the 1760s, said the championship helped unify the community because, for once, Hispanics could not be seen only as outsiders.

“They represent J-M, and they represent the whole school, not just the Hispanics,” Emerson said.

According to census figures, the number of Hispanics in North Carolina is 444,000 and growing. But as recently as 15 years ago, native Spanish speakers were rare, especially in rural places such as this idyllic southern town of about 7,500 some 50 miles west of Raleigh.

Yet Siler City was among the first places the immigrants congregated.

High turnover in the area’s three poultry plants required a steady supply of new workers. And while the work butchering and packing birds was dirty and repetitive, it often beat anything available to immigrants in their native countries.

Tension grew as the numbers of Hispanics increased.

“Literally, we didn’t know what a Hispanic was,” Emerson said. “The only Hispanics we had any contact with were migrant workers who came in during the summer to harvest tobacco plants.”

But the new immigrants tended to stay, and the population growth strained schools and social services. Suddenly, the county had to hire Spanish interpreters.

Some people resented the intrusion.

The low point came in February 2000, when white supremacist David Duke, a former Louisiana lawmaker, came to town at the invitation of some local residents. About 100 people rallied in front of City Hall as Duke warned them Mexican immigrants would overrun the town.

Cuadros’ role in changing those perceptions happened almost by accident. The freelance journalist of Peruvian descent came to North Carolina in 1999 on a fellowship to study the emerging Hispanic population.

Cuadros, a former high school soccer player, lobbied the Jordan-Matthews principal to start a soccer team. Cuadros offered to coach, and a local businessman paid for the first uniforms.

The 41-year-old Cuadros still recalls the first time he brought out the blue-and-white team jerseys with “Jets” across the front. For many of the players, it was the first time they truly felt a part of the school they attended. Hispanics make up about a quarter of the 670 students at Jordan-Matthews, while blacks account for another fourth and the rest are white.

Their championship capped a season in which the Jets didn’t just win, they dominated, outscoring opponents 123-29. Five of their 23 players made all-conference, including the only non-Hispanic, Andrew Van Schooten.

“I’m just so happy I get to play with these guys,” he said. “I’ve played on all-white teams before and they just didn’t have the passion these guys have.”

A Hispanic championship was inevitable. Hispanic players filled the rosters of the playoff teams this year in the state’s 1-A playoffs, the division for the smallest high schools. Only Lejeune High School, a state champion in 2002 that fell 2-0 in the championship game to Jordan-Matthews, reached the semifinals without a mostly Hispanic team.

On a cold December day just a few weeks after winning the 1-A title, about 15 Jordan-Matthews players dashed and darted around the school’s browned football field, mostly ignoring the frigid wind as they chased a pair of soccer balls.

They had come dressed for the weather, not the game, wearing padded coats and jeans held up by thick, big-buckled belts. They cocked back their legs to drive the ball toward goalie Roberto Lopez, a three-time all-conference player who dove after the cold-hardened balls even though no title was on the line.

The boys laughed as they rolled on the ground and knocked into one another. One of them wore a state championship T-shirt. Another showed off the scar earned when he broke his collarbone in a game.

“Nobody thought Siler City had good players,” said Octavio Hernandez, a junior named most valuable player of the state finals after he scored the final goal of the championship match. “We just worked.”

The players were less boisterous when they shyly marched in the Siler City Christmas Parade earlier this month, at the invitation of the local Chamber of Commerce. Several trudged with their heads down at first, unwilling to look at or wave to the crowd.

But spectators cheered as the champions passed through the same downtown visited by David Duke nearly five years ago, past the same City Hall where he preached a hateful sermon against immigrants.

The boys warmed up, emboldened by their popularity.

“It was great for them. They had a blast,” Cuadros said. “That really in my mind said how much the town has changed.”

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