![The cross country team poses for the camera after finishing the district meet. The varsity boys, JV boys and JV girls all placed third and the varsity girls placed fourth. “Coach put in the right training for us for this season, so I think we will be peaking this week and the next couple of weeks,” varsity runner and junior Nathan Kukla said. “The chances of making it to state are very high, but we don’t settle for the lowest and there is always going to be that chance, so [we] race for the best.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Heidi-831-1200x900.jpg)
![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)
![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)
![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)
![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)
![Standing proud, varsity senior athletes Rafael Escobar, Griffin Jacobs, Jakob Martin, and juniors Jackson Springer and Jack Morris pose with their newly earned medals. The varsity team finished third out of 14 teams on Sept. 25. “The team's primary goal is to win the district championship,” head coach Cody Price said. "We're confident that with our action plan in place, we can accomplish this mission. [For the next tournament], our preparation involves assessing our strengths and weaknesses, celebrating milestones and creating individual development plans." Photo courtesy of Cody Price](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/golf.jpg)
He looks at the clock and sees that there are only thirty more seconds and that the scoreboard is tied— they need one goal to win. He passes the ball to his teammate as he runs down the field to the opponent’s goal keeper. As he once again receives the ball, he waits for the perfect timing to shoot. He shoots… and scores. The crowd cheers in celebration as he runs down the field with all his teammates joining him in celebration.
The varsity boys soccer team is in the second round of district play, fighting for a spot in the postseason. With a brand-new team from last season, the team is working to make adjustments and get into a rhythm. The team faced Liberty Hill on Feb. 19 to start the second round and ended with a tied 2-2 score.
“We had a rough start to the season,” senior Captain Jonah Ferrante said. “A large part was that we played some of the best competition in Texas so now that we’re playing teams similar to our level in play we need to use what we learned from those hard games and make sure we can win all of the games we can win. As a team I just want to go as far as we can in playoffs and try to be the best team we can be. As a player, I want to be the best I can as a leader on the team and hopefully the underclassmen will see that and try to be leaders when they are seniors.”
The team is not only adapting to a new lineup of players but also a new head coach. Head boys soccer Coach Kevin Fleming moved from Cedar Park Middle School to the high school and became the new boys soccer head coach. The new coaching style has also been an aspect the team has had to adjust to and worked to adapt to.
“Adapting to the new coaching style has been difficult,” senior Captain Carlo Martinez said. “Everyone has had to get used to it and it has taken us a second for us to do that but I think we’re starting to get comfortable with it and it’s showing up in our games. We also have a completely new team as well. Our team revolved around a lot of seniors last year so them leaving and our new coach [coming in] created a lot of change we needed to adapt to. In the beginning we didn’t have the strongest chemistry but we are definitely building on that now and we are all close with each other.”
With a new team, the team has had to build connections with one another on and off the field. A typical practice has the team starting out with stretches, dynamic warmups and next possession drills or technical skills which focus on both individual skills and teamwork. The teammates also scrimmage each other in order to recreate a game-like experience.
“We have improved our team chemistry a lot on the field and our team mindset,” Martinez said. “We struggled in pre-season but we’ve worked to overcome that block and we saw some success in the beginning of district. We work a lot on our mentality during practice so we try to stay focused and play every practice like a game.”
The team has dinners every Thursday in which they either go to a restaurant or to a player’s house and work on bonding together. In practices they also participate in team bonding drills to build connections.
“We are all so close,” junior Jake Briseno said. “It’s just fun and it’s a good break from club soccer and I really enjoy playing with them. The little things we do definitely contribute to the chemistry we have with each other. In past years, the team was split into multiple groups and this past year we did really well with team chemistry. This year it has been continuing to improve and I think we can go far with how close we are.”
As their connections develop and the season continues the team has been working through all of these new aspects and will battle for success at the end of district play. The team now focuses on the type of mentality they have and how they can use that mindset in games.
“Coach Fleming is very compassionate and really cares about the team,” Martinez said. “He cares about how we each feel as individuals and I think we have a great shot of making it to playoffs with him. When we have played our best we have shown that we can easily be a top competitor in our district. Our mentality needs to continue to be staying focused and going into every game with the most intensity and passion.”
