![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)
An Eagle Among Birdies
Senior Discusses Future Golf Career
![Finding the ball, senior Carson Vickers swings for success. Vickers planned to attend St. Edward's and play golf, but after COVID-19 resulted in the golf programs being discontinued, Vickers has had to adapt his plans, but said he will continue to practice and play golf. “I would say that [my] love of the game is the main reason that I’ve been able to get to where I am,” Vickers said.](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/carsonVcropped.jpg)
Photo courtesy of Carson Vickers
Finding the ball, senior Carson Vickers swings for success. Vickers planned to attend St. Edward’s and play golf, but after COVID-19 resulted in the golf programs being discontinued, Vickers has had to adapt his plans, but said he will continue to practice and play golf. “I would say that [my] love of the game is the main reason that I’ve been able to get to where I am,” Vickers said.
May 5, 2020
The people who are able to play golf at a high level have been proven to be on a different level of self confidence and patience by many major golf casting programs. Countless hours are spent on either a course or a driving range, perfecting just one shot with one club, and then switching to a different club and doing the same exact thing.
Senior Carson Vickers seems to have come pretty close to that high of a level of play. He was committed to play golf on scholarship at St. Edward’s University, starting in the fall of 2020.
“My favorite thing about golf is that there is always something to work toward,” Vickers said. “Golf can’t ever be perfected.”
Getting to this level of play in golf clearly can’t be easy, as even though it doesn’t seem competitive, top high school and college teams are composed of four to seven players, as opposed to the 44 players that you would find on a football field.
“I would say that [my] love of the game is the main reason that I’ve been able to get to where I am,” Vickers said. “I practice about 30 hours a week, which includes practicing at home and at the golf course.”
Over the past golf seasons, Vickers has proven that he is a player to be reckoned with. In the 2018-2019 season, Vickers was the first The Athletic’s Department All-Region Honorable Mention, and in the 2017-2018 season, Vickers was on the honorable mention list for TAD All-State.
After years and years of hard work were put into golf, Vickers was offered a scholarship to play golf, and he accepted his offer while committing to St. Edward’s on Dec. 24, 2018, during his junior year.
“My original plan for college was to go to St. Edwards for four years, study business and eventually get my MBA,” Vickers said.
Once the spring of 2020 came around, the tide took a turn for the worse in regards to Vickers’ future at St. Edwards. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, St. Edward’s made the call to discontinue the golf programs at the university.
Despite setbacks, Vickers has a plan to continue playing golf. Vickers said his current plan is to attend St. Edward’s for at least one year, and then transfer for the 2021 golf season.
“I’m going to work with my swing coach and prepare myself for the 2021 season and hopefully transfer after my freshman year to go and play college golf somewhere,” Vickers said. “If I’m not able to do that, I will happily finish my degree at St. Edward’s.”
In this time of trouble and conflict, it can be hard for people to keep high spirits and keep their patience, but for Vickers, being a golfer has given him all of the virtues needed to get through this situation, and according to him, his high hopes and love for the game are going to be huge for his success in the near future.
