![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)
During the school day on April 8, the Total Solar Eclipse will pass over the school at approximately 1:30 p.m. In effort to properly educate the student body on the eclipse, AP Physics and Seminar teacher Christopher Voss invited Baylor Professor and Department head of Astronomy Dr. Barbara Endl, PHD to give a presentation about the eclipse during DEN on March 21.
“Astronomy is arguably one of the most fundamental sciences because we can not set the perimentors when we do an experiment,” Endl said. “You can set things apart in a lab, but we cannot do that with planets; they are just in the universe and we have to try to understand it, which is what makes the eclipse so unique and interesting.”
Endl gave a presentation about the science behind the eclipse and included interactive activities that gave visual representations of how the solar system works. Endl also explained the safety precautions students should follow to remain safe during the solar eclipse.
“Make sure you have the proper protection for the eyes,” Endl said. “In terms of other safety measures, if you are going to go somewhere, be prepared. For example, pack water and snacks. The travel on the way back can be very complicated because everybody goes at the same time, when the sun is out of the eclipse, everyone leaves at the same time, so there have been lots of traffic jams in the past.”
Endl stressed the importance of wearing the proper eyewear as the sun’s rays will permanently burn retina’s in the back of the eye. However, during totality you can remove the eclipse glasses and view with the naked eye.
“I’m intrigued by being able to see other planets,” freshman Gustov Mt. Joy said. “When I heard you might be able to see like Jupiter, and you can look without the glasses during totality, I thought that was crazy.”
Band is taking advantage of this opportunity for their trip to BOA Grand Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana on Nov. 14 by selling solar eclipse glasses to earn money.
“[Selling eclipse glasses] is going to help us pay for a lot of our stuff on our road to Grand National,” assistant band director Kendall Santos said. “It’s a really expensive trip. We take pretty much the whole neighborhood to Indiana and it costs a lot of money to move a lot of people and a lot of equipment, so any money we can raise from the fundraiser will be beneficial for the band.”
The glasses were available in the link on the weekly newsletter sent to families as well sold at Birdie Fest at Spare Birdie last Saturday. The glasses will also be available at the Crossover on April 6 before prom.
“The glasses are pretty awesome,” Santos said. “It’s got the Timberwolf on it. It’s nothing specific to band. We wanted to keep it generic for the whole high school, so you can get it, it just happens to support the band program.”
The district will be operating on a modified schedule to ensure students and teachers have the opportunity to see the eclipse when it reaches totality. Although one of the few school districts in school the day of the eclipse, Endl said it is an opportunity for students to apply what they learn in the classroom to a real world experience.
“People say ‘when am I ever going to use the science that I learned at school?” right,” Endl said. “So, this is an opportunity to use the science you learned at school like Biology, Zoology, of course Astronomy, there is lots of Physics behind it as well. Also, it’s an opportunity to teach the students and to learn and connect all the dots that day.”
