![Senior Jett Mckinney stores all the clothes in his own room, with half of it stored in his closet along with his personal clothes, and the rest taking up space in his room.
“There’s been times [when] there’s so much clothing stored here and it gets overwhelming, so I end up having to sleep somewhere else in the house,” Mckinney said.](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/DSC_0951-1200x800.jpg)
![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)
![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)
The green ball is a blur of motion, flying back and forth over the net. The atmosphere is ripe with anticipation as the players hit the ball back and forth. Spectators and coaches cheer on the players, hoping their team will win.
The tennis team won the district championship, 10-6, against Liberty Hill on Oct. 1. Seniors Mia Petty and Nolan Park are two of the four captains of the varsity tennis team. All of the captains have played on varsity for all four years of high school. Of the 24 players on the varsity team, 17 are seniors. Coach Ballenger said that the team’s experience has contributed to their success.
“[With so many players] being seniors, they have the experience of being in tough matches,” Ballenger said. “Several of them have been four-year starters, so they’ve had plenty of experience.”
It was the team’s first time winning districts in four years, and they previously lost to Liberty Hill in the regular season. Park said the loss made them more determined to win the championship.
“Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “When we played [Liberty Hill again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night. When we won, we did our school cheer and it was a fun drive home all the way back from Liberty Hill.”
With so many seniors playing, the stakes at districts were higher, according to Petty. Coach Ballenger said he thinks the seniors were motivated to finish their senior year on a high note.
“The kids worked so hard,” Ballenger said. “They didn’t give up, they fought and they were so focused. They made my job easy because they came out and did it on their own.”
After the game against Liberty Hill, the team won against Smithson Valley and San Antonio Southwest. However, they eventually lost to Alamo Heights in the regional quarterfinals, 10-6. Petty said that the team dynamic was very positive during the playoffs.
“Because it was our last year, we were all really excited and motivated to win,” Petty said. “We were all really encouraging each other and motivating each other to do the best we could.”
Ballenger said that he’s proud of how far the seniors have come. Even when they struggle, he said they are able to work hard and overcome obstacles.
“I’m really proud of how in the moments when they used to get down, instead they’re able to encourage each other,” Ballenger said. “It’s been nice to see them uplift [each other] in those moments. [Seeing them] coming close together as a team [has been great].”
The varsity team has only seven players that aren’t seniors. Petty said that because there are so many seniors on the team, there was a unique dynamic between the seniors and underclassmen.
“[The team dynamic is] definitely fun,” Petty said. “We try to get the underclassmen to be motivated and to be like us. We all started off as beginners in their position. They have a lot of promise and potential. Our team will still be really strong next year. We’re losing a lot of seniors but the underclassmen have it handled.”
Coach Ballenger said he’s looking forward to seeing the JV team step up and replace the seniors. Many of the JV players are sophomores and juniors who have played several years.
“I’m [looking at] JV right now and they’re working so hard,” Ballenger said. “I’ve had these little talks with them like ‘we’ve set the bar high and you’ve got to keep working’ and they will. They’re getting a lot better and we’ll just have to reload next year.”
