Staff Writer

Coppell’s recent success in football is no secret and this success has carried over to the college level with seven Division I scholarships being given out in the past five years and one player who has practiced in the NFL.

Most Coppell students now remember running backs Cam McDaniel and Evans Okotcha, but before these two there was Emmanuel Moody. Moody is one of the most successful football players to come out of Coppell High School since graduating in 2005.

Initially, Moody committed to Texas but eventually was convinced by USC to sign with the Trojans. He enjoyed some success winning the 2006 Pac-10 Freshman of the Year award but transferred to Florida due to the high number of running backs at USC.

After winning a national championship with the Gators in 2008, Moody went undrafted in 2011, but practiced with the Buffalo Bills as a free agent before getting cut.

“The NFL lockout did not work to my advantage,” said Moody via Facebook. “I will get another shot at the end of the year.”

Okotcha is another running back that transferred in college, eventually winding up at UT- San Antonio from Portland State with another Coppell graduate, safety Nic Johnston. Okotcha and Johnston are two of the founding members of UTSA’s football program that first started play this year.

“The fact that UTSA just got a program is really cool,” Okotcha said via Facebook. “We get a lot of hype and a lot of love. We also got the chance to make history in a bunch of different ways.”

Although they will be making history at UTSA, the fledgling program does have its disadvantages.

“The bad part is we don’t have great facilities and no traditions,” Johnston said via Facebook. “Last year we didn’t get to play games so we just practiced a lot, too.”

The Roadrunners went 4-6 in their first season.

In Coach Joe McBride’s first season one of the biggest factors to his success was quarterback Hayden Hawk. As a senior he threw for over 3,400 yards, 29 touchdowns and earned District MVP on top of leading the Cowboys to an 11-2 season.

Hawk went to the University of Nebraska-Omaha but the program was discontinued by the university in 2011, along with its wrestling program.

“I was very surprised when the team was discontinued,” Hawk said via Facebook. “Football was one of their mainstay programs and everyone was just stunned.”

Hawk transferred to University of Central Missouri where he has another shot at playing football in college.

“I’m very happy with my decision to transfer,” Hawk said. ”Although it was really hard to leave all my teammates and friends that I grew close to, I think I’m in a better situation both academically and athletically.

Last year was one of the best recruiting years in Coppell history with multiple Cowboys going to some of the top programs in the country.

Tanner Rice is now attending the Air Force Academy where after his time is done for football he will get a chance to serve in the Air Force, receiving training while he is a student.

“I chose Air Force because I saw the opportunity that it presents,” Rice said via Facebook. “I can serve the United States, receive a top tier education and become employed immediately after graduation and most importantly play football.”

McBride and his coaching staff has come in and not only set records with the football program but is setting Coppell records with recruits going to some of the best schools in the nation.

“We have a coaching staff that is very experienced,” Coach Stephen Fex said, “We have a lot of connections to get kids playing at the next level.”

Keep an eye out for former Cowboys playing throughout the country this bowl season.

On Oct. 12, the junior class began their first steps toward college and senior year by taking the PSAT or the practice SAT.

This test is just a taste of the actual SAT that most of the juniors will be taking later this school year and early this upcoming summer. The PSAT, like the SAT challenges students in the areas of analytical reading, writing and mathematics. The test can not be substituted for the actual SAT but it does determine if the student can be a national merit scholar or a national commended scholar depending on how well they did on the test.

According to Mrs. Poe in the Student Services office the scores are in and are being sorted. The scores will be distributed either tomorrow in sometime this week during the juniors english classes. Juniors who took the test will not only receive their scores but they will also get a chart noting how many correct and incorrect answers the student had on the test to help them prepare for the actual SAT.

As time goes on, work ethics and studying strategies have changed as well as many other aspects of today's educational process. Photo by Rachel Bush.

parents are often in charge of the financial concerns during this point. But as Casey sent out his applications he asked himself, “can I afford it?”
Education has greatly changed over the years; student-teacher relationships did not always exist the way they do now.
“Teachers were once regarded as more of authority figures than they are today,” Chemistry teacher Bob White said.
If a student were to go back in time to the mid-1960s and attend White’s high school in Milwaukee, Wis., they would not be developing relaxed friendships with their teachers like students do today. In fact, the classroom was a place in which manners were most often used by students. After-school tutoring was very intimidating, because that meant they would be on a more personal level with a teacher.

Now, tutoring is avoided simply because it means extra time at school. Students have many other resources if they are struggling in a subject, most which can be found on the Internet. Students are not exaggerating when they complain that education has become more challenging; however, they are wrong to think they would be better off 30 years ago when ‘dinosaurs roamed the earth’ and encyclopedias were not untouchable dust-collectors in the back of libraries.
Vicki Hubbard is an account executive for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. College was not something she thought about until her senior year. Even then, it was never something she actually worried about.
“We had it easy – we didn’t have to grow up fast,” Hubbard said.
According to Hubbard, life was different in the 1960s and ‘70s. Girls did not wear makeup as early as they do now. There were no SAT prep classes, dual credit classes, and no AP classes at her school. Nobody was worried about their Texas Instruments calculator getting stolen; they did not exist.
“The first AP chemistry test in was in 1963, but the Milwaukee school system was not that progressive,” White said. “I never heard of AP classes let alone attended any.”
And yet, White still attended college without the fears and insecurities most students endure today even after taking multiple AP classes. It is not difficult to understand why many of them want to just run away from it all.
But running away from hard work would never be practical, especially not if you were to go back in time. How many trips would you be willing to take to the library to read textbooks and encyclopedias? Reading is a dying hobby – imagine reading entire books, dreaming of an easier way to understand them. Students back then dreamed about what one day would actually be called Sparknotes.
“Now anyone can go to college,” CHS 2011 graduate Julie Dasilva said. “Maybe not everyone can go to a prestigious school, but there is at least one college that anyone can get into. People can even go to junior college and then transfer. If there is a will, there is a way. You determine your own future.”
Dasilva did not believe she would be able to get into Texas A&M, an expensive and very popular college amongst students at CHS. But she took advantage of the opportunities colleges provide that they did not used to, and is now a freshman at A&M.
Our generation has to fight against rough currents in order to reach tropical waters. We must work harder to compete with a world that has been strengthened by mankind’s revolutionary creations. But storms have been and always will be fierce and violent, and ever so reccurring.
The teenagers of today remember 9/11 and how they watched their parents cry in fear of doomed peace. Hubbard cried the day her teacher chokingly announced to the class that President Kennedy had been shot.
“We wondered what has happened to the world,” said Hubbard, as she wiped tears from her eyes.
And still, 47 years from now we look back to those days, thinking they were easier.

Staff Writer

This past weekend, I was doing my homework like a good student when I came across the English homework that I was supposed to annotate. What I found in this article was shocking.

I, and every other senior, am not done; done with school, that is. I’ve done the work for 12 years and have applied and been accepted into several schools. But I’m still not done. I did not know that once colleges accept me they can take back their acceptance letter if I do not maintain my grades. This sent me into a slight panic mode; I did not even know that they could eradicate your acceptance!

So seniors: remember to not slack off during second semester or you may get a letter revoking your acceptance. You can read about all of the interesting facts here.

1. Get a good nights rest and have a healthy breakfast in the morning. This will help fuel your effort while taking the test and ensures that you will not zone out while testing.

2. Be relaxed and confident during your test day.

3. Pace is apparent! Don’t dwindle with questions, be sure to keep a steady pace so that you can get to all the questions.

4. Use the process of elimination in search of the right answer.

5. Making an educated guess can help your score tremendously, but only guess if you can eliminate at least two of the answers.

Good luck to all testers this weekend! For more information concerning scheduling and registration for the SAT/ACT visit Collegeboard.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Austin sentenced Solomon Hobbs Jr. to nearly five years in prison. On top of the sentence, Hobbs must repay the $37,000 he stole in student loans.

Hobbs, also know as Virgil Clinton Powell, stole the identity of a college student in order to obtain money from a college loan. Investigators told the press that Hobbs primarily targeted the University of Texas at its Tyler, El Paso and Arlington locations. Hobbs also used another person’s name for student loans at Midwestern State University and Texas State University.

The crime has provoked officials to look into the accessibility of obtaining a student loan and to possibly propose a new procedure on how students receive loans. This inadvertently could pose a problem for CHS students who are going to be attending college next year.

The dual credit program at Coppell provides numerous opportunities for students, whether it is knocking out college credits early or trying to free up some time in their schedule, dual credit has something for any type of student.

Dual credit serves for college credit and allows students to have some extra time in their day. It provides an opportunity for students to continue on a Pre-AP schedule during junior year where the predominant number of your class options have a happy medium between regular and AP in the dual credit system.

“I did dual credit because I didn’t want to do AP U.S. History, but I also didn’t want to do regular,” junior Lexie Davidson said, “And on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I don’t have school.”

Senior Remi Harrenger takes notes in her dual credit class that offers a college like approach to her high school education. Photo by Jack Ficklen.

Dual credit is offered in the form of 60 different classes, covering all types of core classes as well as a wide variety of specialty classes. Dual credit allows students to get a feel for a college learning atmosphere, as well as knock out some credits needed to graduate.

Sophomores are already pondering making the dual credit decision.

“I’m thinking about dual credit because of the college experience and the credit you can get,” sophomore Garisen Fezzey said.

According to New Tech senior Tyler Truax, he is doing it to get a jump on his upcoming freshman year in college.

“It’s so I can get ahead in doing my college classes,” Truax said, “So the college deans who look at my application say ‘He already has college credit.”

That, however, brings up the issue of some colleges not accepting the credits given by the dual credit program. Texas law requires that public colleges accept the credit given for high school dual credit, however that is just public schools, and some of the credit received may not even count towards the student’s desired degree.

Knocking out some college credit and getting a college learning experience in high school puts dual credit students slightly ahead of the game.

“The way I see that it has benefitted our students is, number one, it gives them a jump start on accumulating college credit hours at no cost to their parents,” head counselor Debbie Fruithandler said, “It also gives them a glimpse of what it’s like to be in a real college class.”

Dual credit is not all beneficial though, the workload for students with poor time management can struggle without the gentle reminders high school students get about their homework. Also, the hours and credits don’t always transfer to private schools and universities outside of Texas.

As far as colleges preferring dual credit compared to regular or AP, Fruithandler informed me that to some colleges it doesn’t even matter.

“I have a child that graduated from Coppell High School who is now at Texas A&M and he had both dual credit and AP credit,” Fruithandler said.

Her son accumulated 31 hours of dual and AP credit, both of which Texas A&M accepted and if he wants to, he will be able to graduate a whole year early.

Staff Writer

Juniors Chiaka Ogbogu and Cassidy Pickrell focus as they wait for the next play. Photo by Rachel Bush.

The Coppell Cowgirls volleyball team has been outstanding this year with three verbal commitments to universities, two of which are top 25 schools in NCAA rankings.

Junior middle blocker Chiaka Ogbogu has decided to take her talents to the University of California-Berkeley. California is currently a top five school in the nation despite having a young team.

“I decided on them because they’re not just a good volleyball school, they also have good academics,” Ogbogu said. “I wanted to go where I could win a championship and get educated.”

Chiaka has been on varsity since her sophomore year and is known by her teammates as a gifted player.

“She has so much natural ability and knows the game well,” junior outside hitter Cassidy Pickrell said,. “She’s really supportive and stays positive on the court.”

Her attitude on and off the court is sure to get her far with the California-Berkley Golden Bears when she arrives in 2013.

While the junior class has produced a lot of talent with Pickrell, Erica Bohannon and Megan Kennedy expected to join Chiaka in committing before their senior season the senior class is also garnering some attention from colleges.

After passing up on the opportunity to graduate early last year, senior setter Bear Bass will be attending St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, arriving as a junior in college.

“I liked St. Mary’s because it fits in with my plan academically since I won’t have to transfer for graduate school, and I really liked the coach,” Bass said.

Bass started out on junior varsity her freshman year before being moved up during the season to varsity.

Senior middle blocker Kierra Holst has committed to Oklahoma University to play volleyball next year, a school that wasn’t initially on her radar.

“I wasn’t considering them at first and then they offered and I took a visit there,” Holst said,. “They have a great campus and a great volleyball team.”

Oklahoma is currently one of the top 25 teams in the nation and finished last year, breaking the top 20 in the polls.

“Our program is lucky to have girls who can perform at such a high level,” Coach Julie Green said, “Not only are they great players but also great leaders and our younger girls really look up to them.”

I have been advised, on several occasions, to take the ACT. Many seniors and CHS graduates seem to think that if the SAT is our downfall, the ACT is our saving grace.

Based on the recent publication of scores for CISD, they may just be right.

Since 2007, the average score for the ACT has risen over six percent in CISD, a dynamic contrast to the static state levels. In addition, 30% more CHS students took the test in 2011 than had in 2010.

As word spreads of the widespread success on this exam, more CHS students are looking into this alternative testing option. The main difference between the two tests is that while the SAT measures aptitude (a student’s innate ability to learn), the ACT measures achievement (with English, Math, Reading, Science, and an optional Writing section.) Also, while the SAT measures an aggregate score, the ACT takes a composite score using all four (or five) sections.

There are many factors that differentiate the two tests from one another, and each should be taken into consideration before students decide to take either test. However, if you’ve had it with CollegeBoard (and really, who hasn’t?), then you may want to take the ACT under some serious consideration.

Graphic by Brian Hwu

Staff Writer

With the school year fully underway, college freshman embark on the journey of living on their own; managing time, money and responsibility.

Most of us can remember our first day of high school; nervous, anxious and a little bit awkward, being a freshman, or “fish.” Being a freshman meant having three grades above you to tell you what and what not to do, teachers always on your back, and stereotyped a helpless baby.

Unfortunately, high school is not your last time to be a “fish” in a plentiful sea of students. Upon graduating, many CHS students will choose to move on to college, where they will plummet from being the upper class, to back down at the bottom as a freshman. Being a freshman in college however, is quite different from being a freshman in high school.

“Being a freshman in college is extremely different; you’re living on your own without your parents and learning how to take care of your responsibilities, yourself and how to adapt to brand new things,” 2011 CHS graduate and LSU freshman Austin Frost said.

In comparison to high school, college is the exact same in the sense that you will face new challenges, new people and a different approach to school work.

Most college freshman admit that their study habits in high school were not the best, but as they began getting comfortable with the college lifestyle, students found a steady increase in their ability to get work done on time.

“My study habits have definitely improved, the trick to college is not getting behind, so as long as you pace yourself and do your work early and often everything works out,” 2011 CHS graduate and Texas A&M freshman Chris Roberts said.

College is more appealing to students because they can develop a major and actually use their knowledge for the benefit of a career down the road.

CHS 2011 graduate Avery Bruner attends Penn State and majors in business. One of the hardest decisions as a college student is deciding your major; it is the framework for any career.

“The reason I chose a business major was because it has many open opportunities for real world application,” Bruner said.

With an increase in workload outside of school and a decrease of time spent in school; the difference from high school and college is apparent in the sense students will be required to be more independent in order to be successful.

Change is present across the board as a freshman in college, according to Roberts, who also majors in business.

“The change for me was being financially responsible for myself; just taking care of myself and things without my parents,” Roberts said.

Independency shoots to a new level when you add in the thought of balancing complex college classes while also being a full time football player.

Freshman student athlete Onyeka “Oni” Omoile, a 2011 CHS graduate, faces the same dilemma at Iowa State University, where he plays offensive tackle for the Cyclones.

After coming off of an impressive 13-1 season with the Coppell Cowboys, the 6-3, 275-pound offensive lineman describes his schedule at Iowa State as hectic, but rewarding.

It is no doubt that the transition from high school to college is challenging, but with the addition of being a major prospect for the ISU football program, you can see where things can start piling on.

“It’s a grind you have to mentally prepare yourself for,” Omoile said. ““With school, tutors and mentors, 6 a.m. workouts, football practice, and a variety of community services deals, you really have no time to do anything until the weekend,” Omoile said.

Omoile’s time commitment, just like all college students, is pushed to the limits as most college freshman admit that the work load is overall a lot larger than high school.

Although college is a lot of work and a time commitment that must be prepared for, it is quite more than being a slave to professors and term papers.

“There is a lot of reward that comes with college, by far the most rewarding thing is making decisions for yourself and always being able to do what you want to,” Bruner said.

If there is anything worth knowing about how to prepare for college however, it is that if you want to succeed by the time you get to college, change your study habits now,” Roberts said.