![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)
During football games, he can be found cheering on the band from the sidelines. At a competition, he paces frantically back and forth behind the drum major’s stand. For almost four months during the summer and at the beginning of each school year, the CPHS band is under his leadership. For eight years, he has been an influential director, guiding many students to discover their passion for music. His intense devotion to making one of the best bands in the country is almost unheard of. This man is Jeremy Spicer, the marching band director of CPHS.
Spicer decided that he wanted to be a band director as a sophomore in high school, and in 1999 he was hired at Cedar Park. In 2001, the band won first place at the 4A State competition. After advancing to class 5A in 2002, Spicer took over as marching director in 2004 and led the band to a silver medal at the 5A State competition. Since then, the marching band has placed countless times in various other competitions such as Westlake, BOA Arlington and San Antonio, and UIL Region and Area D. Despite the growth of the program, the numerous awards and abundant recognition, Spicer maintained his modesty and has always kept the rest of the band grounded.
“I think arrogance gets in the way of excellence,” Spicer said. “If you’re arrogant about what you do or how you do it, then you truly aren’t achieving the level of excellence that you probably could.”
Spicer has helped the Cedar Park marching band flourish, molding them into the successful organization that they’ve become. However, he has recently accepted the position as head band director at Vandegrift High School. The news came as a shock to many band members, despite rumors that had been spread throughout the program regarding the situation.
“I want to be a head band director,” Spicer said. “I have the need and want to be a head band director. One of my ultimate dreams was to be the band director at Cedar Park, but that’s not going to happen. Mr. Wessels is the head and he earned it and he’s a fabulous head band director, and I saw the writing on the wall that he would probably be here for while, and I can’t wait that long. This was a fantastic opportunity to work in a fabulous district with kids that I’ve already taught.”
The marvel of Jeremy Spicer will long be remembered by the band students at Cedar Park. The accomplishments that were achieved as a result of all the energy he put into the band program will always be reminisced by those who experienced Spicer’s remarkable ability to motivate. After all, it is the prominent motto of the Cedar Park band to “Move and Inspire,” an axiom clearly embodied by Spicer. Wherever he goes, he will inspire the students to go beyond what is expected of them. He and the next band under his leadership will continue to awe audiences everywhere.
