![Walking through the tunnel created by the cheerleaders and Celebrities, senior Frances Tran smiles as the soccer team is sent off during DEN for their playoff game against Rouse tonight. Tran said the wins against Smithson Valley and Alamo Heights gave the team a morale boost to take on the Raiders tonight. “I know we were not 100% confident in those games,” Tran said. “But, Rouse is a big opponent for sure. We’re definitely going into tonight with a lot of morale [because of the previous wins].”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/frances-tran.jpg)
![Holding a bucket of materials in one hand and a roll of tape in another, anatomy and biology teacher Tyler Terry prepares for a lab. Terry said his proudest moments are when his students are happy to see him. “When I take my wife to a football game or something and a bunch of students want to say hi to me or they like to smile and wave and it just makes me feel good that the students are really kind and supportive of me,” Terry said. “[I’m also] proud when I see students perform really well in their extracurriculars because I can see how hard they’re working in my classes, [so] when I see that they’re also working so hard in other things. Like they’re winning band competitions or they’re getting awards for their theater productions, or I see them put on their choir shows, that’s like, wow, you guys are incredible.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Rags-6.png)
![Catching a ball, junior Alivia Robinson plays at the Cedar Park vs Glenn game. Having played since she was 5 years old, she is dedicated to softball and has committed to UTPB for softball. “When I got my offer it took me a very long time to decide where,” Robinson said. “Softball has always been my dream for college, and UTPB is my fit. When [I committed] I knew I was going to be loved and supported.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Lilly-Adams-3.13aliviaedit-901.jpg)
![Holding her dog, Nova, senior Ariana Balakrishnan poses for her senior pictures while Nova wears a bandana with her college decision. Balakrishnan applied to 18 colleges in total, but she decided on Columbia in the end. “Right before I clicked the button to open Columbia’s letter, I literally looked at the camera and go ‘This is just gonna really suck because I wanted it so bad,’ and I clicked it and all of a sudden you hear trumpets,” Balakrishnan said. “There’s a video that plays when you open it and I actually didn’t watch the video, I just watched the screen go black, because every day of December before ED [Early Decision] I would go on YouTube and watch the acceptance video to manifest it, so immediately when the screen went black, I started screaming and jumping up and down. And my parents in the video are like ‘What are you doing, where’s the letter,’ and I was just screaming ‘I got in, I got in.” I just started crying, and it just felt like everything in the world came together.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/ariana-2-300x217.jpg)
Silence fills the room as order of the judges, who stare across the room at the standalone figure. The player clutches his instrument close to his chest in anticipation, the instrument composed of a series of buttons and spastic tubing. Giovani Lang-pale blows into his instrument, and the bass clarinet’s melody fills the room.
Giovani Lamg-pale is a senior who has been part of the honor band for two years. Lang-pale first joined band in seventh grade, and continued his journey throughout his four years of high school. The dual wielding clarinet player didn’t always have his eyes set on band, but there were moments throughout school that instilled in him a love for band.
“It first hit me in seventh grade in middle school,” Lang-pale said. “Whenever I saw my teacher teach the band and do everything that he did, he always seemed so happy, so excited, so enthusiastic to be there. I was pushed to stay and continue growing in band the first year I was able to actually march in the Cedar Park High School Band. I remember the thrill and the excitement that you feel when you’re on the field and doing the first full performance where you know for sure you’re going to nail it.”
Last year, Lang-pale placed third in the clarinet room for solo ensemble. At the Cedar Park High sShool Young Artist Competition, or CPAC, he played a solo with a pianist accompaniment and got an overall score of 93, but still wanted to improve his playing skills.
“It was very exciting to see the fruits of my labor reap something,” Lang-pale said. “My sophomore year I wasn’t as enthusiastic about doing all the music stuff. I wasn’t as engaged into my instrument or anything like that. So whenever the time came around for [CPAC], I did all right. But I didn’t do as good as I knew I could, and I didn’t do as good as I wanted to.”
This year, Lang-pale went off to compete in the TMEA state competition, placing seventh in state for bass clarinet.
“I play the B-flat clarinet,” Lang-pale said. “The B-flat is basically just the smaller version of the bass clarinet. I started off on the B-flat, and I’m playing it again this year for the CPAC. These are my loves. I love them.”
Although Lang-pale plays mainly the bass and B-flat clarinet, he also spends his free time playing saxophone, drawing and playing video games between his busy band schedule. Lang-pale hopes that his talents will be recognized by the University of Central Arkansas, which is where he hopes to follow in the footsteps of his band private lesson teacher.
“I’ve met the clarinet professor at UCA,” Lang-pale said. “She’s trained me and helped me with clarinet whenever I was auditioning for All-State. That was pretty cool. I hope my auditions go well; I audition March 9th, so that’ll be cool. From then on my goal is just to get a music degree and go from there.”
