High And Dry

JESUIT ( New Orleans) soccer coach Hubie Collins summed up his team's season in three words: "Amazing, amazing, amazing." The first was for the team's 31-0-0 record, the second for the Blue Jays' having allowed only five goals all season, and the third for their playoff run. Jesuit won all five postseason games 2--0, including Saturday's state Division I title game against St. Paul's ( Covington). The players' only fault was failing to give their coach his customary Gatorade bath. Before they could, Collins says, "I ran to the jugs and knocked them over."

Jesuit, which has won three state titles in five years, missed last year after Hurricane Katrina closed the school for four months. This year's club took back the state title and staked a claim to the school's first mythical national championship in winter soccer. "Some of them lost everything [in the hurricane]," Collins says. "They've grown up as young men."