![Walking through the tunnel created by the cheerleaders and Celebrities, senior Frances Tran smiles as the soccer team is sent off during DEN for their playoff game against Rouse tonight. Tran said the wins against Smithson Valley and Alamo Heights gave the team a morale boost to take on the Raiders tonight. “I know we were not 100% confident in those games,” Tran said. “But, Rouse is a big opponent for sure. We’re definitely going into tonight with a lot of morale [because of the previous wins].”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/frances-tran.jpg)
![Holding a bucket of materials in one hand and a roll of tape in another, anatomy and biology teacher Tyler Terry prepares for a lab. Terry said his proudest moments are when his students are happy to see him. “When I take my wife to a football game or something and a bunch of students want to say hi to me or they like to smile and wave and it just makes me feel good that the students are really kind and supportive of me,” Terry said. “[I’m also] proud when I see students perform really well in their extracurriculars because I can see how hard they’re working in my classes, [so] when I see that they’re also working so hard in other things. Like they’re winning band competitions or they’re getting awards for their theater productions, or I see them put on their choir shows, that’s like, wow, you guys are incredible.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rags-6.png)
![Catching a ball, junior Alivia Robinson plays at the Cedar Park vs Glenn game. Having played since she was 5 years old, she is dedicated to softball and has committed to UTPB for softball. “When I got my offer it took me a very long time to decide where,” Robinson said. “Softball has always been my dream for college, and UTPB is my fit. When [I committed] I knew I was going to be loved and supported.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Lilly-Adams-3.13aliviaedit-901.jpg)
Lacrosse: Struggle for the Spotlight
Boys and Girls LAX Going Strong, Yet Has Been Lacking Student Viewership
Sprinting into action, freshman Kayden Fanner thinks about why more students should start coming out to games. “Coming out really hypes us up more for the game,” Fanner said. “Especially when we’re at home.”
March 7, 2019
Balls flying, cross-checking and flows blowing in the wind, both the boys and girls lacrosse teams have been back in full swing this year.
The boys have already played in eight games, with their record sitting at 3-5 overall and 1-0 in district. The girls have played in ten games and their overall record is 8-2, while also being 2-1 in district play.
“As of now, we are only a couple games into the season,” junior midfielder Jake Givens said. “I see a lot of potential, so I’m excited to see where we can go.”
An obstacle that both the boys and the girls team face in the season is that they do not have the numbers on their teams as other local teams.
“I think the biggest challenge we face as a team is just the few amount of players we have,” Givens said.
Though the girls play under a team name of Cedar Park, the team is made up of girls from different schools in the area. In addition to their Cedar Park players, they have players from Vista Ridge and Leander.
“Right now, it’s a club team because we have to pull together girls from surrounding high schools to make a team,” senior Willow Knight said. “If we had enough [players] for a team within CPHS, we could make it official with the school.”
With an early record of 3-5 for the guys team, senior midfielder Sam Schaefer said that they are looking forward to better things, as they hope to improve not only their record, but their play as a whole.
“Our team could try and work better together and not get discouraged when the refs make a bad call or one of us gets injured,” Schaefer said.
A challenge that the sport of lacrosse faces as a whole is the lack of interest and school support. According to Statista, however, the numbers of U.S. high school students joining lacrosse teams have been on the rise. On the flip side of that, The National Federation of State High School Associations shows that lacrosse is still below sports such as tennis, swimming and golf in terms of participation.
“I think [we need to] get more students to come and support our team at games,” sophomore attack Brecken Hare said. “If we could get some more girls to come to some practices and see if they would be interested in playing lacrosse, then we could help our girls lacrosse team get on the school map.”
Remaining Home Games
Boys:
-Thursday, March 7 vs McNeil
-Saturday, March 30 vs Georgetown
-Thursday, April 11 vs Gateway
-Thursday, April 18 vs Vista Ridge
Girls:
-Thursday, March 14 vs Westlake
-Wednesday, March 27 vs St. Andrews
-Friday, April 12 vs Bowie
-Wednesday, April 17 vs Vandegrift
![Holding her dog, Nova, senior Ariana Balakrishnan poses for her senior pictures while Nova wears a bandana with her college decision. Balakrishnan applied to 18 colleges in total, but she decided on Columbia in the end. “Right before I clicked the button to open Columbia’s letter, I literally looked at the camera and go ‘This is just gonna really suck because I wanted it so bad,’ and I clicked it and all of a sudden you hear trumpets,” Balakrishnan said. “There’s a video that plays when you open it and I actually didn’t watch the video, I just watched the screen go black, because every day of December before ED [Early Decision] I would go on YouTube and watch the acceptance video to manifest it, so immediately when the screen went black, I started screaming and jumping up and down. And my parents in the video are like ‘What are you doing, where’s the letter,’ and I was just screaming ‘I got in, I got in.” I just started crying, and it just felt like everything in the world came together.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/ariana-2-300x217.jpg)
![Catching a ball, junior Alivia Robinson plays at the Cedar Park vs Glenn game. Having played since she was 5 years old, she is dedicated to softball and has committed to UTPB for softball. “When I got my offer it took me a very long time to decide where,” Robinson said. “Softball has always been my dream for college, and UTPB is my fit. When [I committed] I knew I was going to be loved and supported.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Lilly-Adams-3.13aliviaedit-901-600x400.jpg)
