![After placing second in their respective LDEs at the Capital District contest in early November, freshman Jesus Jaramillo-Gallegos and freshman Wyatt Pickett will compete at the Area XII LDE contest in Georgetown on Nov. 23. Jaramillo-Gallegos is competing in Greenhand Spanish Creed Speaking, while Pickett’s LDE is Greenhand Creed Speaking. “Honestly, [I’m excited for] just traveling around, maybe meeting more people,” Jaramillo-Gallegos said. “And [I’m] nervous about probably just not being able to define my weak areas. I feel like I did decent for my first time ever doing this. I just think it’s fun.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Navy-and-Yellow-Simple-Group-Project-Presentation-1200x675.png)
![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)
![Sitting at a desk past the rows of books laid out for the Book Fair, senior Kimberley Walters assists people in purchasing books and finding titles. The Book Fair is taking place Dec. 16 through Dec. 20, and is an annual event during which students and faculty have the opportunity to go and purchase books and other trinkets in the library. Kimberley said she encourages all to go to the Book Fair, even if they think they don’t like to read. “If you make reading something that is fun for you and you find the things that you like to read, it will never be a chore,” Walters said. “So [the Book Fair is] a good opportunity to find something that will respark your want to read [like] when you were a child and you went to the book fair and you loved the ‘I survived’ books. Maybe you'll find your ‘I survived’ books of your high school experience, and it'll re-spark that kind of love for reading that may have died out.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Addie-L-47-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, sophomore Olivia Mahlmeister and seniors Samantha Jameson, Adhit Eswaramoorthi and Justin Khadavi celebrate completing first chamber in the Congress Meet. All four students advanced to the final chamber. “Out of the 20 kids in the final chamber, we had a seventh, ninth, 11th and 13th, and they took the top four to move on to state,” AP US History and Debate teacher Josh Marsh said. “[Even though] we didn't make state this year, all four of them moving on [and] placing is phenomenal.” Photo courtesy of Josh Marsh](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-Regional-Congress-Team.jpg)
![Standing in front of a small audience, senior Kimberley Walters shares a social criticism poem titled “Pity the Nation” by Lawrence Felinghetti. Every month, sponsored by the poetry club, the library hosts a poetry reading. “I never thought I would be interested in [poetry readings] because I’m not the biggest poetry fan,” Walters said. “I think poetry is a very succinct way to express feelings and get a story across. Whereas lots of books have a span of a whole story, but it’s put in a lot of words. The power of poetry is that you can be so succinct within, and there’s a lot of power within the words that are used.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KIM-1200x800.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)
![Holding the Grand Nationals trophies, drum majors Helashi Wijayawardhana, Abigail Pettey and Eddy Kim pose for a photo. The BOA Grand Nationals competition took place in Indianapolis on Nov. 14-17. “My favorite thing was just looking back at the field, and I was like, ‘Oh, crap. I know all of their names, I know who all of them are’,” Wijayawardahana said. “It's just insane to me that I was able to make so many connections. [Being a drum major] taught me how to build relationships with people who I’m not really that similar to, and how to juggle a ton of things all together.”
Photo courtesy of CPHS Band SmugMug](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AJC.GrandNatsFinals-169-1200x801.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)
![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)
![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)
Blue and white mix with green and silver as 77 dancers mingle and get to know each other. Then, it’s time to get to work as they lock arms and get ready for the tips of their toes to stretch to their hats. A long standing tradition returns, as the girls lock arms and prepare to unite two communities on a fall Friday night.
During halftime at the Leander game on Nov. 1, the Celebrities and Blue Belles will perform a kick routine together. The routine, called the “Sister Kick,” started as a tradition in the early 2000s, but died out when Leander High School was realigned to the 6A division. Former Celebrity and now Assistant Director Katie Thompson was part of the effort to bring the tradition back.
“In the dance world, we’re all friends, we like to collaborate,” Thompson said. “Both schools have new directors, and now that I’m back, we thought about bringing it back. It was just kind of a discussion that happened at one of our district dance meetings and we were like ‘let’s do it’ and so we did it. It’s cool to bring it back because it shows collaboration in our district.”
The dance started as a way to show unity despite the rivalry between the two schools. The captains of the two teams choreographed the dance the first year it was done and the choreography has been used every year after.
“As a way of friendship, we’re showing that no matter what is going on through football it’s always a friendly competition,” senior Ali Cooper said. “We’re just showing that we’re all friends, and that’s how it originated.”
The Blue Belles came to Cedar Park last week and Thompson taught both teams the choreography. Since she was a Celebrity during her time at Cedar Park, Thompson did the dance every year she was on the team.
“It’s just kind of one of those things that gets stuck in your brain,” Thompson said. “I found a video on YouTube and relearned it. As I listened to the music, it all came back to me.”
Both teams have been working independently on the dance at their respective schools all week. However, on Thursday, the teams had a collaborative rehearsal at Bible Stadium from 6:45 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
“The girl’s are so sweet,” Cooper said. “We’re laughing, we’re having a good time, but we’re also respectful to learning this dance with each other.”
Despite being the same choreography, both teams have different styles that they had to adjust too. They have also been adjusting to each other’s traditions, including the Celebs’ tradition of clapping when someone does a pirouette.
“It’s so fun to see the different styles of kicking the Belles have,” Cooper said. “That has been blowing all of our minds, and we’re just trying to adjust to that and vice versa because they’re probably having to adjust to our details that they don’t have. It’s just really cool how the compromise between the two teams is going.”
Being the first team since the fall of 2015 to perform the dance, junior rookie Brianna Harris said it is an honor to be on the team that brings it back.
“I love getting to work with everyone and getting so close with everyone,” Harris said. “It’s like a sisterhood [between the two schools], and getting to work with the Belles for the first time in a while is so cool to be a part of.”
Thompson said the girls from both teams are learning life skills that go beyond the dance gym from this experience.
“It teaches them the skill of branching out of their comfort zone,” Thompson said. “When we have practices with them, we make them find a Blue Belle friend and they have to get to know each other. It just teaches them life skills and obviously they all have something in common because they’re all on the dance teams at their school, so it helps them make new friends, which is a skill they can carry with them throughout their entire lives.”
Along with the dance, the bands will be performing together as well. Thompson said she is excited to see it all come to fruition on the field Friday night.
“It’s going to be really visual and cool because we start off with every other person and then we split into the two teams and then we make one long kick-line with everyone,” Thompson said. “It’s been awhile since they’ve done it and I’m just so excited to see it back again.”
