It was probably one of the most unusual celebrations in the annals of high school sports.

It didn't happen on the field, in the gym, nor in the lockerroom. You might say it erupted spontaneously in the corridors of Jefferson High School, when of all things, the field hockey team found out that the Falcons' game against Newton had been rained out.

That rainout assured Jefferson of its first state playoff berth since 1983, some 24 years ago. Strangely enough, Newton, the very same team that the Falcons would have played in a regular season SCIL game had there not been a rainout on Oct. 12, is the team that Jefferson will now face in the opening round of the North Jersey, Section I, Group 2 playoffs, scheduled for Oct. 30. The Falcons are seeded seventh and the Braves are the No. 2 seed in a seven-team field.

If you're waiting for the explanation for this bizarre set of circumstances, here it is.

The NJSIAA, the state's athletic governing body, requires a team to have a .500 or better record on a predetermined cutoff date, which fell this year on Oct. 17. Had Jefferson, which had a 7-6 record as of the morning of Oct. 12, not been rained out, the game would have had added significance, since Newton had won the first meeting between the teams, 3-1, on Sept. 17.   

It was never about the winning streak.

What it was about was winning the next game. And then, when the next game was in the books, winning the game after that.

That philosophy worked like a charm for the Chatham High School boys’ basketball team, which won the Iron Hills Conference-Hills Division crown in only its third year in the league, the Morris County Tournament championship, the North Jersey, Section II, Group 2 sectional and Group 2 titles and a berth in the state Tournament of Champions.

And oh yes, a school-record 30-game winning streak.

Had the streak extended to just three more victories, the Cougars would have been cutting down the nets at the Continental Arena and celebrating as the state’s best team. ''Our expectations every year are to win the conference, win the counties and win the states,'' said Chatham coach Todd Ervin.

The streak? It was just another statistic, Ervin said. It never hung over the Cougars, so there never was any kind of pressure on the team. ''We didn't even think about it,'' Ervin confirmed.

The evolution of the winning streak began in the spring of 2006. While not anticipating anything on the order of journeying nearly three months without losing, Ervin knew that this was going to be a very good team.

''We had everyone back,'' Ervin recalled, ''and last spring we tried to figure out how to get 9 guys involved in the rotation. In the past, we never went beyond 8.'' After losing to Mendham, 53-34, on Dec. 19, in the second game of the season, the Cougars were off to a modest 1-1 start. Little did Ervin know that loss would be the only one of the regular season, not to mention the county and state playoffs, until Seton Hall Prep ended their dream in the first round of the Tournament of Champions, 48-43, on March 14.

The message is both clear and bold - and their aim is to finish the job that came thisclose to winning the North Jersey, Section II, Group 2 football championship.

Almost from the moment that Montville High School lost a heart-breaking 8-7 decision to West Essex on a two-point converson by 6-1, 295-pound Tom Grossi in the final two minutes at Giants Stadium on Dec. 2, the battle cry has been that next season that's all going to change.

You probably couldn't find a Montville student or a member of any of the other athletic teams there who hasn't seen the picture on the poster that shows the winning two-point conversion, where Grossi, a two-way lineman, dives and barely makes it across the goal line with 1:45 left in the game.

How close was it? The length of a chain link, or perhaps less than an inch? No matter, since Montville now has a rallying cry. 

The poster, which has been circulating around school since Dec. 4, the Monday after the title game, states:  ''We work hard for 364 days, so on the 365th day, we can play our hearts out for 3 hours. We need to get this much better. The new road to Giants Stadium starts now!''

When Dan Hoeflinger was hired as a history teacher and assistant football coach at Butler High School in the fall of 1967, little did he realize that he ultimately would become part of that school's history - and especially since the school is 100 years old this year.

In 40 of those years, Hoeflinger's been coaching football for one of the state's most successful and honored franchises - the Bulldogs. So in simple terms, if he were a math teacher, and we suspect even as a history teacher, he's well aware that he's been a huge part of 40 percent of the school's history.