![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)
Lights shimmer and fall as the performers hit the stage. Giant props descend from the heavens to set the perfect scene as the play continues. Colors shine and shift with the performers as they galivant across the stage. However what you don’t see is the wild clacking of buttons and gizmos bringing the show to life, as senior Michael Zolidis watches closely from his domain above the audience.
Zolidis is head theater tech director and is planning to major in history at The University of South Carolina. He plays a major role in managing everything behind the scenes for a majority of theater’s performances in the PAC, such as “Elf” and “Grease,” theater’s annual haunted house and much more. Zolidis says his most memorable moment in theater tech was when he and other lighting staff spent the night in the PAC fixing and rigging up the final touches for Theater’s production of the award winning play “Elf.”
“During ‘Elf’ tech week, we were far behind on lighting,” Zolidis said. “So me and Brenden Kellicker, along with our boss, Mr. Paz, stayed until 8 a.m. the next morning just working through the show.”
Zolidis says he also loves being a part of other events associated with the school as well, from running the school flags on the football field during games, to hyping up the student section. However, Zolidis says that his favorite of them all was Senior Assassin.
“I loved it because I was able to meet a lot of different people and get closer with a bunch of others,” Zolidis said. “I wouldn’t have gotten the opportunity if I didn’t play the game.”
Although Zolidis is the ultimate hype-man when it comes to any crowd, he says he greatly values his friends and family for pushing him through the bad days and to realize how far he’s grown not only as a graduating senior in high school, but as a reliable colleague and friend. He says he is very excited to see what the future holds for him and is ready to take it on anyway he can.
“I see myself after graduation working as a Historian, traveling, while still remaining close with a lot of my friends,” Zolidis said. “My advice is to find your people and to do what you love no matter what anyone says.”
