![Broadcast, yearbook and newspaper combined for 66 Interscholastic League Press Conference awards this year. Yearbook won 43, newspaper won 14 and broadcast took home nine. “I think [the ILPC awards] are a great way to give the kids some acknowledgement for all of their hard work,” newspaper and yearbook adviser Paige Hert said. “They typically spend the year covering everyone else’s big moments, so it’s really cool for them to be celebrated so many times and in so many different ways.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/edited-ILPC.jpg)
![Looking down at his racket, junior Hasun Nguyen hits the green tennis ball. Hasun has played tennis since he was 9 years old, and he is on the varsity team. "I feel like it’s not really appreciated in America as much, but [tennis] is a really competitive and mentally challenging sport,” Nguyen said. “I’m really level-headed and can keep my cool during a match, and that helps me play a bit better under pressure.” Photo by Kyra Cox](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/hasun.jpg)
![Bringing her arm over her head and taking a quick breath, junior Lauren Lucas swims the final laps of the 500 freestyle at the regionals swimming competition on date. Lucas broke the school’s 18-year-old record for the 500 freestyle at regionals and again at state with a time of 4:58.63. “I’d had my eye on that 500 record since my freshman year, so I was really excited to see if I could get it at regionals or districts,” Lucas said. “ State is always a really fun experience and medaling for the first time was really great. It was a very very tight race, [so] I was a bit surprised [that I medaled]. [There were] a lot of fast girls at the meet in general, [and] it was like a dogfight back and forth, back and forth.” Photo by Kaydence Wilkinson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Kaydence-2.7-23-edit-2.jpg)
![As her hair blows in the wind, senior Brianna Grandow runs the varsity girls 5K at the cross country district meet last Thursday. Grandow finished fourth in the event and led the varsity girls to regionals with a third place placement as a team. “I’m very excited [to go to regionals],” Grandow said. “I’m excited to race in Corpus Christi, and we get to go to the beach, so that’s really awesome.” Photo by Addison Bruce](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/brianna.jpg)
A wall of sound pierces the air as band students march and play in unison, fighting back against the unforgiving heat. Down on the field level, Assistant Band Director Samantha Dimatteo makes sure the students’ effort is unwavering.
After being introduced to the students at the end of last semester, Dimatteo joined the program at the beginning of the 2025-2026 season and has taken on the role of Assistant Director of Bands and will be leading the symphonic and concert band classes during the winter and spring.
“I’m really excited to be here,” Dimatteo said. “It’s my dream job. I’m also so happy to be a part of something bigger than me.”
During her childhood, Dimatteo played piano, flute and later euphonium. Originally, she wanted to become a lawyer but had a change of heart and instead went on to study euphonium at West Chester University, where she got her degree in Music Education.
“I only really wanted to be a lawyer for the money but band I actually enjoy,” Dimatteo said. “I think that music is really important for people, especially kids from 5 to 18. I think it’s a super developmental part of their lives, and I think it brings a lot not only to them but their community.”
In college, Dimatteo marched with the Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps. The Cadets were a 10-time Drum Corps International World Champion who were active from 1934 to 2024. She said that pushing through the difficult days with pneumonia and blistering weather made her much more resilient.
“You can do anything you want to do,” Dimatteo said. “You just have to set your mind to it. If you’re not accomplishing what it is you think you want to do, that means there is a reason you’re not, and you probably don’t 100% align with it. There’s never an end to a path; there’s just a new path to go on.”
After college, Dimatteo briefly worked as a choir director in Pennsylvania before moving to Texas, where she worked as a band director in the San Antonio area for eight years. This year will mark her ninth year as a band director and her first at Cedar Park.
“I’m really thankful for the staff here because they’re so kind, and they are very supportive,” Dimatteo said. “The students here too are so nice. It’s different for me to come in and have students talk about things. The other day, somebody came up to me and asked what my favorite band was, and I was like ‘woah, that came out of nowhere, but also, it’s cool you’re interested in knowing that stuff.’”
For Dimatteo, the goal of the school year is to make sure the students are prepared with all the materials they need so that they are best prepared for the marching and concert seasons to make sure they are better musicians at the end of the year than where they first started.
“The cool thing about the students here is that they hold themselves up to high standards,” Dimatteo said. “They hold themselves up to a high expectation of where they want to go because they have goals for themselves. I just want to assist them.”
