![The cross country team poses for the camera after finishing the district meet. The varsity boys, JV boys and JV girls all placed third and the varsity girls placed fourth. “Coach put in the right training for us for this season, so I think we will be peaking this week and the next couple of weeks,” varsity runner and junior Nathan Kukla said. “The chances of making it to state are very high, but we don’t settle for the lowest and there is always going to be that chance, so [we] race for the best.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Heidi-831-1200x900.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, Author Ehigbor Okosun, members of Page Turners, and other students reflect on the author's visit. “I thought the visit was great,” Senior Amia De Leon said. “It was interesting talking to her and [getting to know] her process and her thoughts and books in general. But I think the reason it went well [was that] people got to ask questions. I'm glad that she said so much in response to the questions and it wasn't just one and done. [The author’s responses] felt very articulate.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sebastian-5-1200x800.jpg)
![Standing in front of the field at a freshman football game, cheerleader freshman Jacob Gaudreau along with teammate freshman Bella Gibson pose for a photo during halftime of game. “[Cheer has] definitely given me a much more outgoing personality,” Gaudreau said. “I used to be very introverted, so it's definitely made me more extroverted towards people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Ingrid-204-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding a wooden pizza toy, senior Taylor Peterson plays with small children in Bucaramanga, Colombia. During the summer, Peterson traveled to Colombia to help build an elementary school that only had two classrooms but five or six grades with one teacher. “We add[ed] two more classrooms,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of hard when you have two or three grades in one classroom and you only have one teacher. It’s very hard to actually get some beneficial learning. [The extra classrooms will give the students] a better quality of education because they’ll actually have a place specific for their learning.” Photo by Taylor Peterson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Taylor-P.png)
![Swinging with his arm extended, senior Nolan Park hits the ball smoothly over the net and to the opponent’s side. Park is one of four varsity tennis captains and helped the team win district championships. “Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “We had lost to Liberty Hill a couple of weeks before, but when we played them [again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kassidy-419.jpg)
![Standing proud, varsity senior athletes Rafael Escobar, Griffin Jacobs, Jakob Martin, and juniors Jackson Springer and Jack Morris pose with their newly earned medals. The varsity team finished third out of 14 teams on Sept. 25. “The team's primary goal is to win the district championship,” head coach Cody Price said. "We're confident that with our action plan in place, we can accomplish this mission. [For the next tournament], our preparation involves assessing our strengths and weaknesses, celebrating milestones and creating individual development plans." Photo courtesy of Cody Price](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/golf.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, the Varsity Tennis team celebrates winning districts. They played against Liberty Hill on Tuesday night and won with a final score of 10- 5. “We improved a lot even from the last game,” senior Blake Hillis said. “We lost against them the last time we played [Liberty Hill], but it was really close. It was just really important for us to win this match since it was the district finals. [When we won I felt] overwhelmingly happy, especially being there with my teammates and it being my senior year. It was just really great. It [felt] like a community.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Tennis-Districts-e1728060882260.png)
Peeking into band
The band sets up props for their performance at The Festival of Bands at Gupton Stadium on Sept. 22. The Festival helped raise money for charity while judges rate the bands from different schools on their overall performance. “The Festival is more of a show,” Driskill said. “It’s all about how your performance looks and whether or not the show comes together.”
October 29, 2014
Band placed seventh out of 10 in Austin BOA contest. They also got third in class and won outstanding music performance in class AAA. The BOA or Bands of America is a competition where schools from Leander ISD and schools around the state compete to go onto Grand Nationals. There are different ranks for certain categories; such as music, visual, and general overall.
This year 26 bands competed in BOA Austin and ten bands made it to finals, including Cedar Park. French Horn sophomore Matthew Driskill was proud of the performance overall, but felt there was room for improvement.
“It was the best performance, however, due to technical problems with our synthesizer, it lacked and we haven’t finished our show yet,” Driskill said. “But this piece has a lot of potential and can be a very inspiring and amazing piece.”
The band recently performed their newest piece at the Gupton Stadium Festival Of Bands on Sept. 22 before BOA. There were 10 high schools and six middle schools that came from Leander ISD. The Festival Of Bands is a fundraiser to help raise money for charity during and after the Band performances. French Horn sophomore Chris Knox likes going to competitive events and experiencing them first hand.
“It was kind of cool to watch other bands and to see what competition is and what they’re like,” Knox said. “If someone hasn’t been to a competition they would be able to see what competition is like in real life.”
Band starts working for competitions before the school year even begins, this year band started back up on July 30. And two months in, they’re still working hard for more competitions, such as the advancing BOA and invitationals.
The preparations for summer band consists of 1-1 ½ hour of crossfit, fundamentals (marching), lunch, music, and then the new piece for the halftime shows. This is done everyday till the first day of the new school year. French Hornist sophomore Kellan McPhail enjoys performing especially after all the hard work he’s done.
“Summer Band is fun but it’s more work than fun,” McPhail said. “It’s not that fun while working but when you’re in that stadium and everybody eats up every note you play, that’s when you’re really proud.”
