![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)
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.”
