![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)
Ready to Rumble?
Pandemic Changes Wrestling Season
Photo courtesy of Erika Peterson
Stepping out into the mat, sophomore Erika Peterson prepares for her wrestling match for the district tournament last year. Peterson was hoping to pass district and then go to regionals, however because of the pandemic the 2019-2020 season was cut short. “I was pretty excited to go to regionals,” Peterson said. “I was glad that COVID hadn’t knocked down my motivation to practice hard and succeed.”
March 11, 2021
Close contact. Throwing and takedowns. Grappling holds. These actions are all characteristic of wrestling as a sport. Amid a global pandemic that encourages social distancing, it might seem nearly impossible to execute a typical wrestling match; however, coach Andrew Peterson said he has found ways to amend wrestling practices to ensure the safety of his wrestlers.
One of the biggest changes in wrestling this year has been transitioning from team practices to individual preparation, according to Peterson. When wrestlers train in person, they are expected to gather in groups of four and maintain a safe distance from other wrestlers. When engaging in contact wrestling, they are not required to wear masks.
Senior Gage Foulds said he believes the new protocols for wrestling practice are efficient.
“We’ve been practicing in very small groups so that if anything happens, we can easily contain the problem and protect everyone else in the wrestling room,” Foulds said.
This season, Peterson said he communicated with the District, UIL and National Federation to ensure the new wrestling protocols align with the CDC guidelines to keep the wrestlers safe as they compete. Now the season got moved from November to March, which shortened the season from there and a half months to five weeks.
“I have shortened practice and changed how we drill during practice,” Peterson said. “We looked at not practicing on Fridays to increase rest for the athletes.”
Wrestling is known as a partner sport, therefore sophomore Erika Peterson struggled to practice without a partner, but she felt like it allowed her to improve her craft. She also feels that it gives her a chance to work on her stances that don’t involve a partner.
“I like how wrestling gives a team aspect,” Erika said. “When you wrestle, you are all alone. Your wins are all yours, there are no teammates you can count on or hide behind when you are on the mat alone.”
Despite COVID-19 disrupting the normal routine for the wrestling team, Coach Peterson said their goal to qualify all weight classes in both the boys’ and girls’ division for the state competition remains the same.
“Are we capable of all these?” Peterson said. “If you don’t put it on the table, one thing is for sure, you definitely won’t make a run at it.”
