Call it serendipity or just blind luck, but when Cuadros moved to Pittsboro five years ago, he was about to make a discovery that would not only change lives, but impact a community as well.

Within a span of three years, Cuadros took Jordan-Matthews from a soccer school after-thought to 1A State Champions.

If you thought Cuadros had it all planned out from the start, think again.

After moving here from Washington, D.C., Cuadros discovered he had some free time on his hands when he wasn’t working on his story about the migration of Latin American workers to rural farms in the southeastern United States.

He received a fellowship from the Alicia Patterson Foundation to come down to North Carolina and develop a story.

On his free time, Cuadros, a soccer player at heart, decided to dedicate some of his time to the local "football" league comprised of 10-year olds.

He quickly found out that this area was rich in soccer talent.

A problem was that after the eighth grade, if the kids didn’t attend Northwood, that playing soccer was over for them.

Jordan-Matthews did not have a varsity soccer team, leaving this talent by the waste side.

Cuadros had a problem with that.

"It’s a shame these kids wouldn’t get a chance to play," Cuadros said. "I knew the talent was there, it just wasn’t being tapped into. I had 15-16 kids that were half from Siler City and half Hispanic. It turned out to be a bridge builder, as the parents got to know each other."

With 10 schools represented, the Bears more than held their own winning four of five matches, improving their record to 7-5 on the season.

Following a disappointing showing at a dual meet a week ago, CC rebounded in Hickory.

In the opening match against South Caldwell, the Bears racked up nine pins in the 58-22 victory.

Brandon Brown got matters off on the right foot with a pin over Jimmy Hill in the 160-pound division.

After two setbacks put CC behind 10-6, Kevin Hamm pinned Tim Brown in the 215-pound class. Quincy Harris followed with a pin over Kasey Nelson in the 275-pound class, and Stephen Mitchell (103) grinded out a hard-fought 14-6 win over Cory Kincaid, giving the Bears a solid lead at 22-10.

Casey Foushee kept the momentum rolling with a pin over Tommie Huskie at 112-pounds.

Wes Little (125) and Preston Powers (130) added pins over Spencer Lairsey and Cody McCrary, respectively, as CC pulled away.

How much longer do college football fans have to tolerate this Bowl Championship Series, otherwise known as the BCS.

So far, the only thing right about it is two letters – BS.

This is the eighth season of this fiasco that has seen the system fail more times than it has worked.

Every year, college football fans sit back at the end of the season and wait to see how the BCS will screw up the national championship picture.

Since its inception in 1998, the BCS has worked only one time - 2002 – where the old system would have failed.

Defending champion Miami played Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl for the title.

Under the old format, this game wouldn’t have happened because the Buckeyes are in the Big 10 and would have went to the Rose Bowl to play the Pac-10 champ.

This happened three different times in the 90’s – 1991 (Miami/Washington), 1994 (Nebraska/Penn State), and 1997 (Michigan/Nebraska).

Score one for the BCS.

One-of-eight is still not very good.

Along the road, there have been some suspect results that have produced a title game that had something to be desired.

In 2000, Oklahoma played Florida State in the Orange Bowl, despite the fact Miami had just beaten the Seminoles d

more- See Thursday, December 2 paper: Vol 85, No. 1