![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)
![Delicately placing the string to form the shape of a cornucopia, seniors Haley Burton and Avery Nelson create the November arrangement for the Flower of the Month Club. This club is led by Advanced Floral Design Students and provides a monthly arrangement to community members who subscribe to receive them. “I think flower of the month club is a really impactful way to show your loved ones ‘hey I really care about you,’ or even if they’re just for yourself, they’re a little pick-me-up throughout the month that [say] ‘I’m doing ok, and these flowers make my day a little bit brighter,” Nelson said. “I like giving people flowers because people value the flowers more and they value themselves more.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Ava-Holmes-3-edit.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)
With the chilliness starting to fade and all the fall and winter sports finishing out their seasons, timberwolves welcome back the heat and the spring sports that come with it. This year, the Cedar Park softball team is back and they are as strong as ever. The girls feel that they are prepared to sweep the district.
Last season, the team started off with high expectations and did its best to reach those lofty goals. As the season came to an end, the girls came just short of meeting them by barely missing the playoffs. However, it’s a whole new year and the team is determined to make sure last season’s disappointments don’t repeat themselves this year.
“We expect to win more games than we lose, go further into playoffs and play every game to our full potential,” Megan Schade, junior shortstop said.
In order to make the playoffs, the team has to improve this year’s performance in every aspect of the game, and practicing more may help them get there. Not only did the girls practice hard during the regular season, they made it mandatory that as soon as the season ended, they wouldn’t lose focus, but instead go into the offseason training and working diligently to improve their strength and speed.
“Off-season was extremely difficult. “We went hard in the weightroom and did conditioning twice a week, as well as practicing when we could,” Kara Stanley senior center fielder, said. “Varsity also went above and beyond and practiced on its own.”
In order to maintain the focus needed for success, a team must have a strong bond sewn into it, and this year the girls say their bond is stronger than ever. With six returning starters, most of the girls have played together for at least two years, if not three. Playing together for such a long time means the girls know each other extremely well and that can only help tremendously on the field.
“Our chemistry is really strong. Everyone can just see that by watching us. Stanley said. “We have great communication and that helps us get the job done on the field.”
When the team didn’t make playoffs last year, the girls knew who would be the challenging teams in 2010, and are preparing hard for those games. In 2009, the girls lost to Georgetown and only beat Leander once. This season, one of the team’s major goals is to ensure it gets the wins it’s worked hard for. But, the team also knows it won’t be an easy task, and they have to make sure they don’t overlook both Leander and Georgetown.
“We always play Georgetown first, so when we lose to them we start district off with a loss,” Cami Jenschke, head coach, said. “They’ve been an average team the last two years, and when you lose, you want to lose to teams that are beating other teams. But with those losses, they put us at the bottom of the bracket. Leander beat us last year and kept us out of the playoffs. This year we just need to remain patient and not be overconfident about either team.”
With such a strong team, every player needs to contribute in order to make progress. It is a team sport, but they acknowledge that everyone has to put in their own time. They also know everybody has weaknesses that they need to make sharper to help better the team, and with the team chemistry, they help push each other to improve those weaknesses.
“As a team, we’ve gotten a lot better at hitting and individually we all know that we have to work hard and that we can’t give up. We all push each other,” Kate Mayfield, junior pitcher, said.
When the 2010 season finally comes to a close, not only will the team lose its four seniors, it will also lose its spot in district 16-5A. February 1, all Cedar Park sports were informed that at the start of the 2010-2011 season, they will be placed in district 25-4A. For the softball team, that means they will start over and have to learn all about new teams while saying goodbye to the ones they knew so well. All of the softball teams that are 16-5A know each other so well, and that makes it more fun when the teams compete.
“I’m really going to miss the camaraderie of it all. I’m going to miss the coaches of this district because we all get a long so well and it’s been fun competing against people who you know,” Jenschke said.
The girls have started the season out strong, going 12-5 in their first 17 games. If the girls remain focused and determined, they’re sure reach their goals and go further into playoffs.
