This year for Academic UIL State, Cypress Springs isn’t bringing one, nor two, but 10 amazing students to UT Austin this Monday, May 18th, to compete for their respective state titles. Among these 10 students are two award winning UIL teams: Spelling and Vocabulary and Social Studies who both won first place as a team for both district and regional UIL.
The Spelling and Vocabulary team consists of senior Christian Jack, senior Toan Nguyen, senior Ethan Rocha, and junior Louise Ely Campo. The Social Studies team consists of senior Juan Olivia Lopez, senior Christopher Ordonez, senior Haider Murtaza, and junior Joseph Oguejiofor.
For Spelling and Vocabulary, studying consists of running the word list over and over again, decorating the whiteboard walls of classrooms with words they must memorize on top of personalized practice tests that specialize in poking out their weak points.
“I do this to break the mold of the stereotype set on Cypress Springs high school,” Rocha said. “The content is challenging and confusing, but the consistency we input allows us to improve. It’s torturous but worth it.”
For Social Studies the team reviews all reading materials consistently on top of making quizlets for each other, and studying by memorizing endless terms and events.
“I like that I get to have the opportunity to challenge myself and compare my knowledge against my competitors,” Oguejiofor said. “Winning feels like a large accomplishment that justifies all the work we put in to get here.”
For a program as new as Academic UIL in Cy Springs, these two teams have built a winning empire in 6A that’s undeniable.
“It’s been a lot of work, especially knowing how our team started out,” Nguyen said. “We work on the best strengths that each person has to offer and thread them into the teams you see today.”
There’s no doubt that Social Studies and Spelling and Vocabulary have their own blindspots, but UIL Director and Coach, Mr. Jose Chapela believes in the greatness the teams can grasp.
“The weaknesses we have today will not be present at state,” Chapela said. “There was a lot of work in the beginning of the competition season that went unseen, but results are going to show at state and that’s what we’re fighting for.”
