![Senior Jett Mckinney stores all the clothes in his own room, with half of it stored in his closet along with his personal clothes, and the rest taking up space in his room.
“There’s been times [when] there’s so much clothing stored here and it gets overwhelming, so I end up having to sleep somewhere else in the house,” Mckinney said.](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/DSC_0951-1200x800.jpg)
![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)
![An alarm chimes out at 6 a.m on the first day of school. For some students, their least favorite part about school is how early they have to wake up. “I just was hoping it wouldn’t be as bad because I had to work this summer so I was kind of used to getting up early,” Ferguson said. “‘Maybe I’ll [get] used to it, but I’m not and I don’t want to get up.”
Photo by Julia Seiden](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FeatureStoryFImage.jpg)
As they enjoy their last week of swimming, tanning and freedom, they can’t deny the inevitable. Soon they are waking up at the crack of dawn, packing their bags and walking into the building with their friends, complaining about having to be back. They reminisce about the hours spent in the water and soaking up the sun’s rays as the first bell of the year brings them back to the reality of sitting in their first class on their first day of school. They breathe in, breathe out, focus on the present, and look forward to the upcoming school year.
With school having started just a little more than a month ago, student plans to achieve their goals and ambitions for this upcoming year are already in session. This year, students of all grades have mixed feelings about the start of school.
“I was actually feeling really good this year,” junior Brooke Ferguson said. “I have an exchange student this year from France so it was really cool getting to show her around on the first day.”
New freshmen are also feeling positive as the school year begins.
“I think it’s going pretty well,” freshman Cassie Rico said. “It’s a lot easier to find my classes and I kind of know where I’m going and what I want to do.”
The beginning of this school year brings a lot of excitement for Ferguson.
“I’m really excited for theater because we’re doing Elf the Musical,” Ferguson said. “I’m excited because I get to be Jovie [in the musical], so I get to be more involved in theater this year.”
There are also some anxieties and worries among students about the upcoming year.
“I don’t have a lot of classes with my friends,” Rico said. “And definitely having classes with upperclassmen is really scary.”
Goals and aspirations for the year are starting to be constructed and calculated.
“I’m trying to work towards [higher] SAT scores [and also] just try to enjoy my high school years,” Ferguson said. “I’m trying to go to all the football games and do everything I can [to make the most of high school] before we graduate.”
For Ferguson, being in choir has made her realize how fast time is going by.
“I sing at graduation every year [for choir],” Ferguson said. “We get to go sing for [the seniors] this year at graduation, and like, next year we won’t be doing that, it’ll be me on that stage. That’s crazy. I still feel like an eighth grader in my heart.”
With Ferguson graduating next year, she has some advice for freshmen nervous about starting high school.
“You’re going to have moments that are going to suck and you’re going to have feuds with your friends and you’re going to be so overwhelmed and stressed,” Ferguson said. “But this is the only time in your life that’s going to be like this, you’re never going to have another moment like this. Embrace the good and bad because the good, obviously, is good, and the bad makes you better.”
