![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)
![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)
![Wearing his scariest face, senior Michael Zolidis creeps down the hallway as blood drips from his exposed brain and onto his face. In last year’s haunted house, Zolidis played the part of a man with his brain exposed, and this year, in addition to acting as a two-faced man, he is one of the seniors working to produce it. “This year, I’m [one of the students] in charge of [the haunted house], which is really nice,” Zolidis said. “There’s a lot more freedom. I get to choose what goes on, [and] I get to choose the pathway. It is stressful, but at the same time, it is one of the most entertaining and interactive things that [I] do during the school year.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/haunted-house-pic-Recovered.jpg)
Tap. Tap. Tap. Anticipation hovers in the air as people line up to enter the attraction, anxiously shuffling their feet. Scattered screams are heard in the distance, causing several concerned looks to be exchanged, but the excitement in the lobby outweighs the uncertainty as one by one, the people enter the haunted house.
The haunted house is an attraction the theater department puts on that leads visitors through the school cafeteria, the theater wing and into the PAC. This year, the theme is “Freak Show,” and it will include student acting roles such as clowns, contortionists, acrobats on stilts, trapeze artists, and a ringmaster. The haunted house will be on Oct. 27 and 28 with the “kiddie run” from 6-7 p.m. and the regular show from 7-11 p.m. Student-run by the seniors in the theater department, the haunted house aims to scare its visitors. The director of the production, senior Cadence Teicher, has taken on additional responsibilities in preparation for the show.
“[Preparing the haunted house] is kind of stressful because if it’s bad, it is on my shoulders,” Teicher said. “There is a lot riding on it, and it’s a little intimidating, but it’s a good challenge [for me], and I’m excited.”
To make the haunted house successful, many different technicians are needed. Costumes, lighting, makeup, and props all need to be planned out, and even with a big cooperation of everyone, it can take a lot of time to put together.
“We don’t have a lot of rehearsal time,” junior Charlotte Adair said. “We basically have the week of, and then we have to perform it. [It is difficult] getting everything built in such a tight timeframe because [we are] only really going to have a week of afterschool days to [practice] it, and the scope is so big.”
In addition to the lack of time to prepare for the haunted house, there is also a lack of budget to spend on supplies for the show.
“The haunted house is one of the few money-making things for us, so the budget is little to none,” senior Brenden Kellicker said. “A lot of it is just re-using scraps and finding what we can to make it work. Sometimes it is [difficult] because, on a few occasions, it is hard to figure out how to get [the sets] to look the way we want. Thankfully, for the most part, [we only design] set pieces usually for two rooms and that’s about it. [It is] not a super difficult task.”
Before the haunted house can run, the area needs to be inspected by the fire chief to make sure it is safe. Technical Theater Director Trevor Smith is in charge of contacting the fire department to set up the inspection.
“I have to get [the haunted house area] inspected by the fire chief to make sure that the route is safe and that it won’t be a fire hazard,” Smith said. “They’ll send a representative over, I’ll walk them through the route of the haunted house, and I’ll explain what buildouts we’re going to do so they know that if a fire were to break out in the middle of the haunted house, everyone would get out safely. It’s just something you have to do whenever you use a building not as it was intended for.”
While actors may receive scripts for their roles in the haunted house, they also improvise to make every group’s experience unique.
“[We] will script specific things that are powerful to say and do that [we] want every group to experience,” Smith said. “Every group is a little different and how long [people] stay looking at a specific part of the show varies, so the performers are encouraged to improvise as long as they stay in character.”
The requirements to be in the haunted house are simple: there are none. According to Teicher, anyone who is interested can be a part of the haunted house by filling out a form.
“Every year there is a Google Classroom made for [the haunted house], and anyone can join in and do the haunted house,” Teicher said. “You don’t have to be in theater, [and] you don’t have to be taking any theater classes. You just have to fill out the form. [However], the size of your role depends on how involved you are in theater.”
For Adair, no matter how many people come or how successful the haunted house is, the most important thing to her is working hard to put on a show she thinks is fantastic.
“[My goal is] to put on a haunted house that I am proud of and that I think turned out really well,” Adair said. “People may or may not come to it, but as long as I have helped create something that I think is good, then I am proud of it, and I am happy.”
