Programs Adjust

10 Feature Nov. 6, 2020 The Show Must Go On Programs adjust to challenges caused by pandemic

Marching Band

Bryan Ross | Co-Editor This summer, the houses behind the band lot were missing a loud neighbor on August mornings. The loud and steady clicks of the metronome followed by 200-300 band members counting and playing were missing. But eventually, that neighbor made their long awaited return. Two months later, about 20 degrees cooler, and with about half the members that were expected, the band took the field for the first time to rehearse Sept. 18. While this year’s edition featured temperature checks, social distancing, and no competitive show to work on for the first time in recent memory, senior John Fortanely says he appreciates the rehearsals this year more than he normally would. “In the previous years it’s just been ‘oh another day of rehearsal I’ve gotta go to,” Fortanely said. “Whereas now it’s ‘I get to go to rehearsal instead of having my band season canceled.’” The band was left without any competition opportunities after Bands of America canceled their fall season along with UIL’s state championship schedule rotating to 6A as the school dropped to the 5A level of competition. “I think the first initial reaction was anger and disappointment, then that turned into hope,” head director James Hairston said. “COVID has affected the

Speech and Debate

Natalia Zavaleta | Reporter Speech and Debate is no exception to the many clubs having to work around new schedules, use new platforms, and more. The Speech and Debate team is no exception to this. From online debates to ‘Among Us’ team meetings, Speech and Debate has been trying to make the most out of the new normal. “It has definitely required creative thinking,” debate coach Kirsten Nash said. “There are completely different problems that exist in the online space.” Debaters must learn new skills in order to be successful in online debates, such as having to be tech savvy in order to be as successful as possible, according to Nash. “It definitely is harder to debate via Zoom considering the internet issues,” junior Afsaneh Masoumi said. Connection issues are the main drawback of band program a lot, we’ve lost students in the program, but we have enough students in the program to keep hope alive, students participating, students on Zoom, so it started out with anger but ended with hope and positivity.” In response to the lack of competition, the band’s planned fall production was delayed until the fall 2021 season and has planned a new production to potentially be performed for the community this spring if conditions allow. In the meantime, band members have the opportunity to sign up to perform at home football games. “I had mixed feelings leading up to the first football game,” Hairston said. “I am and was super excited to have the students back and be able to go to the football games, but also I’m saddened because we are missing 50 percent of the program. The fulfilment isn’t there, even though we do have 100 kids with us, you want to have the 200 kids all together.” At rehearsals and football games, members are required to wear masks that have slits in them to allow for playing their instruments, as well as other precautions such as social distancing, sitting one to a seat on bus rides, and only allowing a limited number of students in dressing rooms at a time. “I always put myself in the student’s shoes,” Hairston said. “I’m uncomfortable with the mask on, I know that they’re uncomfortable with the mask on, so I try to put myself on their level letting them know that the transitioning to online, according to team members. “I think that we definitely are missing out on some team building,” Nash said. “By this time we have already had a couple of potlucks and have hosted an in person tournament.” Students have also expressed their troubles of being away from the team. “The hardest thing about being virtual is missing team interactions,” junior Audrey Fife said. “We don't have bus rides or in-person practices to bond together as a team, which is one of my favorite things about being in Speech and Debate.” On the other hand, at least some team members agree that they feel more comfortable debating from home and virtually than in person. “I actually really like online right now because I get really bad anxiety competing in front of people so it’s been a good break for me,” Isaelle Cano, the only discomfort they’re going through we’re going through as well, but we do have to do it in order to maintain safety, and I think with that aspect the kids buy into the fact that I do see it on their side, and we’re all in this together, so let’s all wear the mask so that we can still play together.” Band at the high school level isn’t the only aspect being affected by the pandemic. Hairston said that middle schoolers losing out on time to learn their instrument is a concern for the future of the program. “My worry is the fact that the 8th graders did not get a full 7th grade year, and they’re not getting a full 8th grade year,” Hairston said. “So I do worry that in the longevity of the program, we’re going to be hurting with the younger students as they get older and we’re exiting the older students that can already play. So that’s my biggest fear right now.” While it’s impossible to know what the future holds, Hairston said that he still has optimism for the rest of the year. “It’s been extremely difficult not knowing what this year’s gonna bring for us or what we’re going to do,” Hairston said. “I think the fact that I have hope that we are going to be able to perform Intergalactic and I keep believing in that, and make the safest plan for the students and have them believe in that.I think that’s the only thing that’s really driving me right now to make it through this year successfully with the students is the

fact that we are going to be able to do this together.” senior on the team, said. “This year has been a huge change because not only am I the oldest and a leader, but the pandemic has changed the way we have to do everything. According to Nash, COVID hasn’t damaged the team's spirit or success. “We have a very young team this year and have been working to acclimate new novices with our small varsity group,” Nash said. “We already have earned 6 state qualifications and have a number of students with state points accumulated already.” By gaining new experiences, the Speech and Debate team is looking forward to new opportunities that will be coming this year. “There are a lot of ‘lost minutes’ in both practice and competitions,” Nash said. “I believe that we are exactly where we need to be at this point.”

Volume 14, Issue 2 Feature 11

The Silver Dancers performed at halftime for the first time this season at the football game against Cedar Park on Oct. 15, accompanied by the band. Cheyenne Cosley | Photographer Silver Dancers

Bryan Ross | Co-Editor On a Thursday night at the PfIELD, the Silver Dancers performed at halftime, accompanied by the band. Not exactly breaking news in most years. But in 2020, when so many events and activities have become virtual or have been outright canceled, it felt a little different. After a summer which provided little clarity on when or if anything would happen in the fall, the first football game was played Sept. 24 with fans in the stands, as well as members of the band, Silver Dancers, and cheerleaders, and a virtual halftime production was broadcasted on the PfIELD’s screen. The first football game to feature a live halftime performance from the Silver Dancers was played Oct. 15. “As soon as we found out there would be actual football games, I started getting hope again,” senior dancer Anai Lopez said. “I was like ‘well, if there’s football games you’d need the Silver Dancers, and the band, and cheer would get to go’ but they didn’t say that, and then when they finally did say it I was excited all over again because we actually got to rehearse something and not just sit around.” The Silver Dancers had to prepare for the football season without their normal spring and summer camps to teach new members their football and contest dances. “I expected everything to be back to normal by this point,” assistant director Autumn Fleet said. “I guess it’s been different because most of our students are virtual and we’ve had to figure out how to do practices over zoom and still watch everybody and give people feedback over zoom, which is very different than being in person.” Fleet said that they tried their best to stay positive and encourage the team to look at the bright side of things, even as they had to adjust or cancel their plans. “Before school started we had our own boot camp where we met daily over zoom and we worked on our technique and strengthening our muscles and getting back into the swing of things,” Fleet said. “We also did some team bonding activities to get them reconnected as a team before we started the school year. We definitely tried to build our foundation and keep that strong to what we have and what we stand by so that as we started out this year with all of the changes we were still firm in that strong foundation.” Once in person school started, the dancers began in-person socially distanced rehearsals before school every morning. Lopez said that because of the reduced time, they have to work harder during rehearsals. “There’s really nothing you can do about [missing spring camp],” Lopez said. “It’s just more when we’re in practice now you can’t goof around as much. It’s more hardcore working than team bonding kind of things. It’s more of getting to work than just sitting around.” In order to maintain safety during the pandemic, everyone who attends rehearsals is required to wear a mask, have their temperature checked, and fill out a form to verify they don’t have any symptoms. In class, the dance room is divided into socially distanced sections for each dancer to use who then wipes it down at the end of class. “We’re still productive because we can be outside and they can stay six feet apart so we can still see what they’re doing and give them corrections,” Fleet said. “Basically we can’t see them smiling but besides that everything else is the same. As a drill team the goal is to make everybody look the same so that we’re one, and we’re still able to do that and polish and clean them and get them ready for performance.” Fleet said that the pandemic-altered season has made her appreciate the little things more. “I’m not seeing my students as much as I did last year,” Fleet said. “There’s a lot of in-between moments, like getting to talk to them, waiting for everyone to dress out, and sitting in between classes. I don’t get to just have conversations with them as much, which is how I built relationships with my students and so I think it’s made me appreciate that part of a normal school year more.”

12 Feature Nov. 6, 2020 Continued from pages 10-11 Journalism

Yael Behar | Reporter News about Coronavirus in early March was something that had been progressively covered more on the news, yet seemed distant to students around the globe. When the pandemic finally hit and case numbers started to skyrocket, school was impacted, with extracurriculars, including journalism, changing greatly. Online learning combined with physical learning has altered the prior methods of all things journalism and all things normal. “As much as this summer has sucked for a lot of people, and as crazy as it’s all been, it’s been excellent for the newspaper,” senior newspaper Co-editor in chief Bryan Ross said. “It was a lot harder to put the last issue together because we weren’t all at the school and there was less opportunity for us to work on it. But there was so much content for us to write about. Between obviously coronavirus affecting literally everyone in the country, and then you also have all the BLM movement and all the social justice movements that have been going on, everyone has been affected by one of those things, at least.” In a certain capacity, things within newspaper have enhanced the big picture, yet possibly smudged the detail work. “I somewhat think that coronavirus has stumped the number of things that can be reported, since there is not much entertainment related things to report on,” freshman newspaper reporter Lilianna Moran said. “I also think COVID has given us a lot of news worthy Cheer

stories to write about, since there always seems to be new sorts of information involving COVID.” With computers open and Zoom links being clicked on the daily for this new form of newspaper, there have been some road bumps to accompany it. “I think the biggest challenge was that the program that we use to design yearbook and newspaper does not work on a chromebook and although it’s fantastic for the district to provide chromebooks for all of the students, it didn’t really help journalism classes,” Journalism teacher Kari Riemer said. “We’ve had to do a lot more after school type activities where we do things that kids would normally get done during class.” Issues like this haven’t been exclusive to The Hawk newspaper staff, with photojournalism dealing with similar roadbumps. “Things have definitely been more challenging because there are fewer events to attend and I’m doing school online,” photographer Ian Falkenbury said. “Because of that, I’ve only taken pictures for a few events, and not any headshots. Because of COVID-19, there are now fewer photographers allowed at events. I’ve noticed it mainly affects football because there’s only one photographer allowed on the field and two in the stands.” Yearbook is something that has had somewhat of a bumpy road to traverse as well. “It’s a little hard to get in contact with some people sometimes but we manage to make it work out,” yearbook co-editor in chief Mia Anarcia said. “It has been challenging finding things to cover for the yearbook weekly but we keep our eyes and ears open to anything anyone is doing.” Communication between the team members in journalism has been changed too, with email being the primary source of information as opposed to regularly talking. “Finding people to interview was a lot harder because normally if you’re just looking for quotes, you can just go around the hallway before school and you can find a bunch of different people with a bunch of different perspectives” Ross said. “Versus this year you have someone on the staff trying to collect quotes, they need to reach out to people‘s Instagram or look through their friends phone numbers, it’s a little bit harder to find a variety of demographics.” Issues in the future will continue to be sent to the student body, whether electronically or physically. I think we will start to do hard copies again soon, hopefully this upcoming issue,” Riemer said. “I like printing the copies of the paper. There’s just something about the tangible issue that I like.” Regardless of all of these precautions and different schooling methods, journalism has remained the same at its core, and students have enjoyed seeing the papers that catch them up on all of the issues, locally, and nationally. “The whole staff was able to throw together a very strong issue,” Ross said. “If you compare this issue to issues in the past, it holds up even if you don’t take into account the fact of all of the pandemic stuff. I’m proud of the work that we did putting it together.”

Ethan Tittle | Asst. Editor With football season starting up again the Cheer team is another group that is affected by the extra COVID precautions that need to be taken. “COVID has been a large obstacle because we were unable to practice for the entire summer leading to us being pretty behind on all the skills we needed to learn,” senior Kylie Anderson said. “We also couldn’t stunt for our first couple weeks of practice which is one of my favorite things.” Like the rest of the school, the cheerleading team has to take certain precautions during their practices to maintain safety for all the members, but they get some exceptions because of the fact that they are moving around and physically exerting themselves. “During practice, everyone that is online for school has to get their temperature checked firsthand,” senior Isabelle Badua said. “We only use four mats now and we have to wait two to three days before we can use the same set of mats. We have to stay socially distanced whenever possible and we keep our masks on whenever we aren't cheering, stunting or tumbling.” Along with practices, the cheerleaders are being affected with new covid restrictions at the schools football games. “Since the football team and the cheerleaders can’t really ‘cross contaminate,’ we are located right behind the field goal now,” Anderson said. “We have to keep our mask on unless we are actually calling a cheer or tumbling/stunting. In previous years, we would always play cheer games with the opposing cheer team during the third quarter and a lot of other districts aren’t allowing their cheerleaders to do that this year, and if they are, we have to remain sociallydistant from them.” Every other year the cheerleaders would travel out of state to their competitions. This past year they went to California for their competitive season. That means that this year they would have stayed in-state for their competitions and competed in 3 competitions with one large one in February. “I enjoy cheering, and although it’s different, I'm going to enjoy it while I can,” Anderson said. “It’s my senior year and I am just trying to make it as fun as possible given the circumstances.”

Cheerleader MacKinley Coe, 12, cheers during the football game against Weiss on Oct. 29.