Seniors Frances Ruiz, Katie Quill, Renne Rohani, Natalie Hill, Loren Hughes and Rebecca Fowler pose with their senior overalls. They are one of many members of The Sidekick that will be finishing their senior year and heading off to college. Photo courtesy Katie Quill.

Ashleigh Heaton
Entertainment Editor

“We still hear stories about old Sidekickers who graduated way long ago – I just wonder, once we’re gone, what will people say about us?”

These were the words of a rather nostalgic Allie Perison, senior and co-editor-in-chief of The Sidekick. Though it may not be clear which stories will be told the most, the 2010 senior members of The Sidekick will be revered for years to come.

One of the largest milestones this senior class  leaves behind is the newest branch of The Sidekick, www.coppellstudentmedia.com, escalating the high school paper into the modern journalistic world – on top of their work on the print edition of the paper, which has been recognized nationally for its professionalism and achievements. The real-world experience the paper has given them has helped shape their futures, even if it isn’t in the journalistic field.

“My favorite part of being on Sidekick is just, for lack of a better term, doing stuff – you get up, you go out and interview people, or you might be designing pages or doing something creative,” senior features editor Chris Nguyen said. “It’s the idea of doing something that I like – you put in an input, and there is an output for it other than a grade. It’s tangible, it’s physical.”

                 In addition to providing opportunities to develop their journalistic skills, the paper has also had an impact on the personal lives of these seniors – experiences which will carry them throughout their lives.

“I feel like I have a sense of purpose, as cheesy as that sounds,” centerspread editor senior Natalie Hill said. “The Sidekick prepares you for so much beyond high school – it gives you that personable experience.”

As editors, these seniors have gone above and beyond expectations – from skipping lunches and coming afterschool to finish page layout, to shifting through the endless amounts of articles begging to be edited, their blood, sweat, and tears have shaped the newspaper Coppell knows today. However, the connections they made along the way made their accomplishments that much sweeter.

“We all go through all the stress, all the low points, all the doubting, when at the same time, we have so much fun,” senior co-editor-in-chief Daphne Chen said. “It’s not like a regular classroom – we get to know each other better than just on a surface level, because we’ve been through stuff together. It goes beyond the writing.”

Another quality of these seniors is their endearing sense of humor, lovingly referred to as “shenanigans”. From sports editor senior Blake Seitz hiding his portfolio in the ceiling panels (only to forget which one he placed it above), to attempting to steal a giant stuffed koala bear from a certain CHS media department, to even keeping an end-of-year Copter tournament alive (in which members play an online helicopter game for the highest score), these members know how to mix work and play.

“No one understands our inside jokes or why Copter is this prevailing thing,” senior opinions editor Angela Almeida said. “To be on the paper, you have to have a certain degree of quirkiness. We’re all weird, but it’s functional – it’s in this dysfunction that we all make sense of it.”

For some seniors, such as Chen, Seitz, Perison, Hill and Almeida, The Sidekick has kept them together for four years – from journalism class freshman year to being senior editors together in 2010. However, some seniors joined the newspaper team later on, including senior photo editor Katie Quill. The experience has not only given her a niche in a big high school, but also a group of friends she will never forget.

“For me, coming in so late, the newspaper gave me a place to land,” Quill said. “I’m so proud of this paper and what photography has done for me. There are so many good things about it, and I feel so lucky because it kind of just fell into my lap.”

Though The Sidekick entails hours of work in regards to reporting, writing and, in the case of editors, page designing, it has also been a second home to these seniors, helping them navigate through the high school experience.

“When I think high school, I think of The Sidekick,” Perison said. “All these other classes came and went, but Sidekick was here four years – it was always here. I feel like it’s been a friend to me, in a sense – it’ been this consistent thing in my life, and it’s kind of weird to leave it behind because I feel like I’m leaving it just like I’m leaving my family and good friends.”

Though these seniors will be greatly missed, it has come time for them to spread their wings and fly off toward a bright future.

“There comes a time where you don’t want to see kids graduate, but there’s only so much you can do at a high school,” The Sidekick adviser Chase Wofford said. “It’s good to say, ‘OK, they’re ready to go and do bigger and better things.’ They’ve reached their potential here, so now it’s time to take it to the next level. I can’t thank them enough – it’s been fun. I’ll miss them.”

The achievements, personalities and antics of the senior class of 2010 will live on in the newsroom in room D115 – but the experience has also changed these seniors.

“There will be a D115-shaped hole in my heart whenever I leave CHS,” Seitz said.