![Holding up T-wolves, the tour group poses for a picture in the Chinese classroom. Sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung and senior Yushan Pan gave a tour to Taiwanese diplomat Andrea Yang on Nov. 8. “I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.” Photo by Skyler King](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Main-Taiwan.jpg)
![Students drew chalk art in honor of Veterans day. This is just one of many things the school does to show appreciation to veterans, and the art will remain in the courtyard as a reminder of all of the veterans who served their country. “On veteran’s day, I think it’s a great thing we do at school to honor people that served [who are] at our school or family members,” English teacher and cheer coach Nadira King said. “It makes me feel proud, and it makes me remember the [veterans].”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Capture.png)
![Sucking in a breath of air, freshman Lily Pope competes in the 200 yard individual medley. On Oct. 25, the swim team competed in the AISD Swim Invitational. Overall, the girls team took second place and the boys team came in eleventh. “My favorite stroke is butterfly because I do the best in that stroke,” Pope said. “I feel like [butterfly] can test how [your ability] to convince yourself to keep going. The hardest part of swimming is convincing yourself to stay strong and keep pushing during a hard race [when] everything is tired.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/POPE-1200x804.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)
![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)
Anticipation fills the room in Belton as they patiently wait for the scores to be revealed on March 21. Robotics team 14361 bursts out into screams and hugs as the realization hit that they had just won the 5A State UIL FTC Competition after months and months of dedication and hard work. The entirety of the team was in shock and couldn’t believe it.
“It felt amazing since we finally saw all of our hard work pay off,” junior hardware member Luyang Chen said. “Every single person on the team was overjoyed. For many, it was probably one of the best moments of the season.”
The competition this year consisted of three main tasks: placing hexagon-shaped pixels on a backboard, hanging the robot in the air and shooting a paper airplane. After six qualification matches, the team made it to state and averaged at a score of approximately 200, which was the high score for 5A UIL.
“This year was even more competitive than usual and the teams that we collaborated with were extremely motivated to be successful,” junior software member Gulin Gurbuz said. “Having to join up with other teams was worrisome at first, but since we did really well in our qualification matches, a lot of other schools wanted to be on our team.”
The team almost qualified for Worlds, which is a competition with the best robotics team from around the globe. They finished as division finalists as the 18th team out of 72. Only the top 12 teams in Texas proceed to Worlds, so while the team is ecstatic about winning 5A UIL State, it was disappointing to not qualify for the next level.
“We were pretty close to qualifying for worlds,” Gurbuz said. “We were in the finals, so if we had won those we would have gone to worlds. I think we were all upset when we realized that we didn’t qualify, but we understand that Texas is one of the hardest states to qualify in, so we will just come back bigger and better next year.”
According to junior business member Adhit Eswaramoorthi, the team has been practicing every day after school for at least three hours for the past three months. After receiving information regarding details on the competition goals, the team has been locked in and focused on making their robot the best possible.
“Honestly, I’ve put in so many hours [that] I’ve lost count,” Gurbuz said. “Over spring break I think I was spending around eight or more hours every day. If I were to estimate, [I have] probably [put in] about 200 hours. We meet every single day, [so] the amount of time that we have dedicated solely to robotics is too much to count.”
Many challenges arose considering this year’s required tasks were more technical than years past. The tight-knit team overcame these hardships by communicating effectively and working together to make necessary changes in a short amount of time. According to Eswaramoorthi, the team had a fast turnover rate that helped their robot adapt to new situations and predicaments.
“The biggest challenge we faced was making our robot more simple,” Gurbuz said. “Our robot was super complicated at first and we weren’t able to implement some parts correctly. We were able to overcome it by simplifying our robot design through pitching new ideas.”
While most of the other robots in the competition were on par with team 14361’s technically, the adaptability that the team’s robot had made all the difference at the state competition.
“If one design didn’t work we didn’t stay stuck on that,” Eswaramoorthi said. “We instantly started brainstorming new ideas we could implement into the next iteration of our robot and so I think our fast design process and commitment to making the robot the best we could really set us apart from the competition.”
Eswaramoorthi said that robotics has taught many members valuable lessons that will stick with them throughout their lives. Projects such as starting up a coding camp in Nigeria, features on local news channels, ice cream socials to promote new members, communicating with other robotics teams all over the world, and assisting a non-profit organization in South America have permanently changed the lives of all the current and future robotics members.
“The outreach that we do with our community really changed me as a person and helped me understand the impact that technology can have on our community,” Eswaramoorthi said. “It’s just like the real world, talking to other people and making those connections is really important. Those connections you make will really pay off in the end.”
According to Gurbuz, almost all of the members of the team were new to robotics this year and picked it up in an instant. To those interested in joining robotics, the accepting community makes it extremely easy to learn, Gurbuz said.
“The number one advice I always give is to not be intimidated,” Chen said. “Competitive robotics is fun for anyone who joins and makes you learn both STEM and teamwork. Our program can teach anyone who is willing or wanting to join.”
