![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)
FFA to State
Two FFA Teams Advance to State, Members Share Preparation, Excitement
FFA’s floral team poses at the state competition on May 3. Entomology got 19th place out of 61 teams and floral got 37th place out of 1,113 teams. “I am very proud of how we did at State,” member Callie Hobbs said. “The state competition was the hardest competition that we had been to by far, so I am thrilled with our ranking.”
May 9, 2019
Students from all over Texas competed in the FFA State Competition on April 27 and May 3, including Cedar Park’s entomology and floral teams. After weeks of dedicated practice, students from the entomology team ranked 19th out of 61 teams, and floral students were ranked 37th out of 60 competing teams.
Junior Cole Schulte, who joined FFA and the entomology team last year, said that he believes this year’s placement will help pave the way for a successful future.
“I was pretty happy with our placement because it is a good starting point for next year [and] all of our team members are returning next year, so I think we have a good shot at winning state next year,” Schulte said. “For next year, we plan to do more research on the identification characteristics of the bugs because we had the most trouble with identifying the different types of bugs.”
Junior Jeffery Morphis has been a member of FFA since eighth grade and joined after hearing about the program from his friend. Morphis said that he was happy after discovering that he was going to State with the entomology team, especially since it was his first year qualifying.
“I was super excited,” Morphis said. “This was the first time I’d qualified for a state contest, and the first time an entomology team from Cedar Park has qualified.”
Similar to the entomology members, the floral team qualified for state after weeks of preparing. Freshman Callie Hobbs, who has been a part of FFA for three years, said that when she heard her team had advanced, she was very proud.
“I was ecstatic when I found out we were going to State,” Hobbs said. “I was so proud of my teammates because we worked really hard and it paid off. I hadn’t been on the team very long when we went to our area competition, so I wasn’t expecting to do very well. However, when our scores were released, I was shocked at how well I did compared to how I thought I was going to do.”
The FFA state competition took place in Huntsville, TX last Friday at Sam Houston University.
“I am very proud of how we did at state,” Hobbs said. “There were 60 floral teams in the whole state and we got 37th, so I was very excited with how we did. The state competition was the hardest competition that we had been to by far, so I am thrilled with our ranking.”
At first, sophomore Skye Lindholm said that she felt a bit discouraged after discovering her team only placed 37th, however, her opinion changed after realizing the level of competition.
“Well, personally, I felt a little disappointed,” Lindholm said. “I had wanted to do a little better, but I didn’t know how many teams there were. 37 out of 60 is pretty good.”
For next year, both Lindholm and Hobbs said that they plan on dedicating more time to studying and preparing for State to advance even further.
“I’m hoping that my team next year will win State so we can represent Texas at Nationals,” Lindholm said. “I plan on preparing by starting everything a lot earlier and going to more practice competitions.”
