![High-fiving a band member in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Head Director of Bands Christopher Yee celebrates the band’s fifth UIL state win with his students. The band faced several challenges this marching season due to the difficult show routine, but was able to come in first at the state contest. “Every year is different,” Yee said. “The show is different, the kids are different, the challenges are different and the competition is different. This [year] feels a little more special. Theyre all special, but this one is particularly special because it was so hard fought. Weve mentioned several times to the kids that they seem like theyre one of the happiest bands weve ever taught. Theyre just happy kids. This years student leadership team [also] stepped up more than normal. I think that theyre very talented. Because it was a hard show, they have a lot of skills and a lot of determination and grit.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/unnamed.jpg)
![Posing next to her 2015 Hyundai Sonata, junior and Celebrities Dance Team Second Lieutenant Sophie Poulsen holds up her license. Poulsen’s car was stolen on Aug. 28 from the school parking lot, and was missing for a day before police recovered it. “I was shocked,” Poulsen said. “I never expected, especially in Cedar Park, for my car to get stolen. I still don’t know who [stole my car], but I wish I knew. I don’t think the cops are going to figure it out, because there’s no point. It already happened. We’re probably never going to know. I feel like it was a student, but who knows? [Nevertheless], Cedar Park is not that [kind of place].”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/View-recent-pho11tos.jpg)
![Taking a selfie with some of their castmates, including senior Aidan Cox, who plays Buddy the Elf, junior Brooke Ferguson shows off a sign presenting the arrival of “Elf. This year’s musical, “Elf” runs Dec. 1-3 in the CPHS PAC. “[Learning a new script is] always kind of a challenge,” Ferguson said. “You get a new cast and you get your own part. I’ve never worked closely with these people before. It’s a different environment and doing character work with someone new, trying to partner work and scene work is interesting. The script is good and it has a lot of jokes, it’ll be a lot of laughs.” Photo by Brooke Ferguson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_2048-e1701374239425-1200x900.jpg)
![Dressed as “H-E-B Buddy,” senior Logan Hedges entertains shoppers during a shift at H-E-B. Hedges has fun on the job, as there’s significantly less pressure than other jobs he has had. “I [used to umpire] little league baseball, and it’s definitely less stressful,” Hedges said. “There’s not much [that can go wrong] scanning groceries. Making a bad call in baseball is so easy.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/BF3C2083-817E-4847-B673-1FEF973AB972.jpeg)
![One student talks about how attractive they imagine the main protagonist is, another describes the negative effects mental health can have on a student, and a third just blatantly states that she hates the ending of her book. The club Page Turners, led by President senior Ellie Knaggs, meets every Tuesday in the library and is a place for students to come and talk about books. “It’s just a place to come and bring so many ideas and opinions into play,” Knaggs said. “We have had some really great discussions in the past, sometimes it’s just talking about like ‘Oh yes, I love that trope’ or ‘this fictional couple is so cute.’ Sometimes the [author] talked about this really heavy topic like abuse or hunger or war and I think it’s something we should talk about and so we will.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Copy-of-Copy-of-STRESS.png)
![Standing in the golden hour’s orange light, Irish music artist Hozier performs at Austin City Limits’ biggest venue. The annual music festival provides opportunities for attendees to both enjoy familiar artists and discover new ones. “I didn’t know Thirty Seconds to Mars [before I went to ACL], but I really love them now because the lead singer put on a great show,” sophomore Mykaela Tapia said. “He was inviting people up to the stage and at one point there were almost sixty people on stage. Matthew McConaughey was there too. [The lead singer] started off the show on a platform right below the roof and he jumped off that platform and I thought that was so cool. The concert was really hype. Even though I wasn’t familiar with the music, I still liked the performance.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_6042-1200x675.jpeg)
![Delbridge smiles with hands wide after a performance at Kelly Reeves Stadium for the Bands of America Austin Finals. “I can’t imagine my life without band,” Delbrdige said. “In 2020 it was the only thing that kept me going—playing my instrument and going into rehearsals. I really don’t want to lose that part of life. It’s kind of sad to leave [that passion] here, but I’d like to find it somewhere else even after I graduate high school.”
Photo courtesy of Lauren Delbridge](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/image_50379265-1200x900.jpg)
![Backstage, junior Erica Mihealsick and Cara Allen are setting up for The One Act Play That Goes Wrong. Originally, I wanted to be an actor, but then I didnt want to because Id have to catch up [in skills] to the other kids. So I decided to join tech, and Ive never looked back.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/P1010905-1200x675.jpg)
![FFA member and junior Max Adams will show his pigs and heifer at the Cedar Park Barn Show on Nov. 12. “When you think you have a good animal, and then you’re surrounded by a bunch of other [showmen with their animals], it will humble you really quick,” Adams said. “If I keep working and I do good [at shows], it makes me feel good about myself. I just like the competitiveness. Its fun taking care of [them]. Putting in a bunch of work and then not doing good upsets me a lot. It makes me want to do better.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IMG_9790-1200x800.png)
![Taking a shot at the basketball hoop, senior point guard Drew O’Connor participates in a drill with Nabil Ismail during practice Oct. 30. O’Connor said he is excited to be a leader for his team this year. “It feels good to be a leader,” O’Connor said. “I think it’s fun because I just like helping others on the team with stuff. [Also], with it being my senior year, [I can] play with less pressure since it’s my last year, and playing with a lot of my friends is fun too.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/drew-oconnor.jpg)
![One of the few stick vehicles in the school parking lot, senior Alex Trebilco’s 1970 Ford Maverick is a restoration project he worked on with his dad. He and his father have worked on cars together for all of Trebilco’s life, and have several finished projects because of it. “[My favorite memory with my car is] honestly just cruising with my dad in his truck and my car,” Trebilco said. “Both of the [cars] are restored. He did the truck and we did the Maverick, so it’s cool to roll down in two cars that we made run together.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Ford-Maverick.png)
From two-feet-tall construction workers to a seven-foot-tall banana, the parking lot turned into another world during the annual trunk or treat last night. Giant pizzas walked hand-in-hand with burgers and large dinosaurs as the night’s event filled with people.
After the forecasted storm clouds cleared from the sky and it was announced the yearly trunk or treat was officially going to happen, clubs claimed their spots in the parking lot and began to set up yesterday after school. Each club hosted their own activities at their booths. Among these games were a twister board with candy taped to each circle, a face painting station and water balloons.
“I really look[ed] forward to the [trunk or treat this year] because this was the first time I came with my younger sister,” junior Eden Yu said. “It’s just really cool that you get to [come to the high school parking lot] and see all different aspects of the school as well as the Cedar Park community.”
The wrestling team had a mat set up behind their trunk where trick or treaters could wrestle for more candy if they wanted to.
“Whether they win or lose they get candy,” sophomore Carter Long said. “It’s pretty safe because we pair them with similar weights and [we] teach them not to do certain things and how to win.”
According to senior swim team member Santhi Marquez, the team’s walk the plank and ring toss game was very popular, but the best activity, in his opinion, was created by PALs.
“I really like[d] the PAL’s pie in the face activity,” Marquez said. “I feel like it brings joy to the people that are getting pied even though it looks kind of aggressive. And the smiles on the faces of the kids that are actually doing the smashing are really big.”
Children of all shapes, sizes and costumes formed a long line to pie the PALs members in the face. One of these members was junior Lynnea Bergman, whose face was covered in whipped cream for most of the night.
“We were doing a pie in the face and cakewalk to get the kids to have fun,” Bergman said. “Some of the kids in the PALs [program were at the trunk or treat] and they got to pie us in the face. [My favorite memory] so far is probably getting pied in the face by a four year old. He went so hard and it was very funny.”
Decked in spiderwebs, the HOSA trunk used a life-size model of human skeleton to represent their club as they passed out candy and quizzed their trick-or-treaters.
“I personally think our car was the best,” sophomore HOSA member Jessica Vajrala said. “We ask[ed] a bunch of medically-related questions to the people that came to the car. They’re very simple questions and everyone leaves having fun.”
With a stream of both young children and their parents, not everyone knows the answers to the questions Vajrala asked those who visited her station. The HOSA members were able to teach the trick or treaters while they passed out candy by helping them answer the questions.
“We were asking questions like ‘what is the largest organ in the body,’” Vajrala said. “[Or] ‘what is the strongest muscle in your body?’ [If they needed] help, I show[ed] them the heart symbol or point[ed] to my skin.”
The group FCCLA designed their trunk activity after the party game “pin the tail on the donkey.” Their version included pin the cherry on the cupcake, pin the tie on the suit and pin the caterpillar on the apple.
“I like interacting with all the kids,” FCCLA club president and senior Emily Plaisted said. “My favorite [part of the night] was just seeing how happy they got whenever they get close to being right [while sticking the cherry to the cupcake] or just getting candy.”
