![Holding up T-wolves, the tour group poses for a picture in the Chinese classroom. Sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung and senior Yushan Pan gave a tour to Taiwanese diplomat Andrea Yang on Nov. 8. “I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.” Photo by Skyler King](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Main-Taiwan.jpg)
![Students drew chalk art in honor of Veterans day. This is just one of many things the school does to show appreciation to veterans, and the art will remain in the courtyard as a reminder of all of the veterans who served their country. “On veteran’s day, I think it’s a great thing we do at school to honor people that served [who are] at our school or family members,” English teacher and cheer coach Nadira King said. “It makes me feel proud, and it makes me remember the [veterans].”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Capture.png)
![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)
![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)
The silence hangs heavy over the dugout as they watch the opposing team celebrate. It was within reach, but simply slipped through their fingers as one run turned into three, which then turned into nine. A hug goodbye to the seniors, a hug to comfort the ones taking over, the ones that are coming back. As the 2023 season came to an end, they knew the battle would start again, the battle against third round games.
With varsity baseball tryouts wrapped up and upcoming scrimmages kicking off the season, the team looks to win district for the fourth year in a row and make it past the third round. The team currently has 16 seniors all of which are returning to the team after playing last year.
“Whenever you have 80-to-90% of your guys returning, you feel really confident,” assistant baseball coach J Stout said. “I think a lot of people doubted us last year and I think we kind of proved them wrong. I think with everybody coming back, the experience they had along with the heartbreak of the last couple of years in the third round is something that we’re striving towards; to kind of break that curse and get through it this year.”
Even though the team’s goal is to be playing in May, senior shortstop Logan Hedges said the team is taking it one game and practice at a time as tournament season approaches in the upcoming weeks.
“I would say I feel pretty optimistic about what we have going on,” Hedges said. “I feel like normally on our first week of practice it has looked a lot different in the past, but this year it has been really fluid and we are looking like a team that’s been at it for weeks now.”
Last season, the team finished with a 25-23-2 overall record and an 11-4 record, earning another district title. After two playoff wins against Tivy High School and Medina Valley High School, the T-Wolves lost to their cross-town rivals, Rouse High School, in a 9-8 battle at Concordia University in round three.
“I would say when it came to the playoffs we were playing near-perfect baseball until probably the last three innings [of the Rouse game],” Hedges said. “I think if you’re looking distinctly at the game we lost it was a matter of being complacent. We had a huge lead in that game and there were just a couple of instances where we kind of just let the game slip a little bit, which in baseball that’s all it takes. One run can turn into three and a couple innings of that can flip a game on its head.”
Along with playoff revenge, senior pitcher and second baseman, Parker Greene said the team is looking forward to going back to Mira’s Bayfront Bash Tournament Feb. 29-March 2, a tournament they went to last year and lost 1-11 to Lake Travis in the championship game.
“It’s exciting that we’re getting to be seniors now and instead of having to sit back and watch stuff like that fall apart, we get to take it in our own hands a little bit and have a bigger role to play this year,” Greene said. “We can encourage the younger guys to get loud in the dugout and that kind of helps to not fall apart.”
Both Greene and Hedges said the senior class is trying to instill a culture on the team where the freshmen are not scared to ask the seniors for help, and one where even if you aren’t playing, you still have a position on the team during a game.
“We are definitely seniors that I wish I had [as a freshman] because I would feel much more confident in my mind in my abilities if I had seniors looking at me saying ‘hey you’re doing a great job,’” Hedges said. “That is something that we find super important because hopefully they will become the seniors we are. I feel like for me, as far as from a leadership standpoint, it’s about keeping everybody invested no matter the score.”
The end goal for the team is reaching the State Championship at Dell Diamond, but they are still taking the season one practice, game and tournament at a time.
“It’s definitely interesting considering that if we play super far playoff baseball we’ll be playing after we graduate,” Hedges said. “Just the thought of being able to go that far with the guys that we’ve been playing with for years now is just, it’s kind of inspiring. It’s what motivates me, just to think that you know there’s a chance to be out of high school still playing ball with my friends, so just one game at a time. One win at a time. Just figuring out who’s going to do it for us.”
You can access the schedule for the team here.
