![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)
From Captain to Coach
Senior Scores Position at Cheer Athletics
Photo courtesy of CPHS Cheer SmugMug
Senior Jordan Tillett takes her experience as a high school cheer captain and gets herself a job as a coach at the Cheer Athletics gym in Austin.
May 27, 2019
Being nominated as captain of her high school cheer team was a big enough accomplishment for senior Jordan Tillett, until she broadened her horizons and landed a coaching job.
Cheer Athletics is a gym for athletes of all levels to train with a team and compete at various events, including The Cheerleading World Championship, the biggest cheer competition in the world. Tillett has participated in this competition for the past four years on the senior level five team, Onyx, the highest level team at Cheer Athletics Austin.
“The people I cheer with and the coaches I have bring me back every year,” Tillett said. “My fellow teammates and I travel together and form friendships that are completely different from any school friendship.”
According to Tillett, her experience on an All-Star cheer team and prior role of being a high school cheer captain both qualify her to become a junior coach at her gym.
“Being in charge of my high school squad and creating routines is similar to coaching a team,” Tillett said. “Having knowledge from being a high school and competitive cheerleader for seven years assures me that I will do great in my coaching role.”
Tillett has attended this gym for four years, giving up several hours every week and many weekends so she can compete at the elite level. After going to the same gym for so long, Tillett has developed a close relationship with her coach.
“My coach knows that I have dedicated my life to cheerleading and this gym specifically,” Tillett said. “He also knew that I have always wanted to be a coach, so he decided to start training me to become one of his junior coaches.”
Tillett currently coaches a junior level three team which consists of girls aged eight to 14. She helps the team execute their skills, perfect their routine and teaches them proper stunting technique, all in hope of winning a competition.
“All of the kids I coach have different personalities and I love getting to watch them grow throughout the year,” Tillett said. “I also love the competitiveness of cheerleading, so I always push my teams to be better than they were before.”
To ensure she can continue her coaching career, Tillett is going to attend Austin Community College before she transfers to The University of Texas at Austin, where she plans on trying out for the college cheer team.
“I will continue to coach and cheer for as long as I can,” Tillett said. “I am actually still going to be on a competitive cheer team this upcoming season as a ‘super senior,’ meaning I will not be in high school anymore, but I have also not yet aged out.”
Although Tillett loves competing, she said that she also enjoys the behind the scenes work that goes into creating a routine and sharing a passion for cheerleading with the other coaches at her gym.
“I have wanted to be a coach ever since I came to Cheer Athletics, that is my dream job,” Tillett said. “And I am so excited that finally get to fulfill that.”
![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-B673-1FEF973AB972-300x300.jpeg)
