Pflugerville High School - Panther Paw Yearbook (Pflugerville, TX)

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The band shows off their sweepstakes trophy they won at the 1985 CI.I.L. band competition in Burnet. “jams on the drums before the awards Dan Poole ceremony. The Meaning of Pride BAND 27 Since the first game they played during football season, Pflugerville High School has seen a tremendous improvement in the band. The band has given the school a better name; a name that is heard all over the state now. The band started a two-week clinic during the summer for 4 hours in the morning, for marching practice. Since the first, the band has amazed the student body, faculty, and the entire population of Pflugerville. On October 27, Pflugerville High School hosted a CIIL marching contest. The band received straight I's from the panel of judges after working long, hard hours, before and after school, in the rain and the heat, on a patriotic routine. After marching season was over and more hours of hard work and practice, the band com- peted at the UIL competition in Burnet, winning a sweepstakes title. Afterwards, the band received an all-out positive response from the student body on April 26, by playing the everpopular song We Are The World. Jennie Strait, a freshman, commented. It made me want to be in band. They were fan tastic. That night, the band went on to perform the progam at TASC — the state student council convention. The arrangement, written by the band's assis- tant director, Lynn Smith, drew a lot of additional attention to the school. Mail was received from all over the state supporting the band. The sweepstakes title the band had earned made them eligible to go on to a state competition held at the University of Texas on the 11th of May, where they received two 2’s, and a 3. ratings that are excellent for a 3A school, competing for the first time. Overall, the band is enthusiastic about their pro- gress which they claim to be almost entirely due to their directors' support. Verda Herrington urged the band to their accomplishments. Says Lisa Lake, the spirit leader and a senior in the band, Our progress is really due to their dedication and patience with us and we really love them a lot! Freshman Nikki Tarno said, I am really proud of what we've accomplished this year ... I hope we can go even farther next year. The band has improved its reputation 100% and is determined to keep the wheels of progress mov- ing. The years to come look to be more successful than this for the band and pose a positive outlook for the entire student body, by Kate Ortiz Kenny Davis and Laura Penley, along with other members of the band, participated in the state student council convention at Municipal Auditorium.

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A New Addition's Point of View ’’What's Extravaganza?. someone asked me. It s Pflugervilles color guard. I replied. So what’s color guard? Color guard is composed of a group of people who work together to produce a show that adds a little more color to the band during half- time at football games. When football season was over we started rehearsing for competitions and exhibitions in the spring time. This was a new change for me and I was a new change for me and I was very excited . . . Going into Extravaganza in the middle of concert season was not extremely hard work. My first day was pretty scary because I only knew one person and nothing about the flags except they were to be used for twirling. After about ten minutes of getting the feel of the flag. Dow Merrit showed me some of the basics: drop spins, double fast, present arms, etc. Ms. Bennett was really ex cited that another person was interested in color guard and told me not to get discouraged if I couldn’t get the hang of it right away. I didn’t, get frustrated and after awhile she started saying how well I was doing which made me pretty happy. It's easier to learn something if you have someone who knows what he's doing to show you exactly how it s done. The older members of the guard thought it was very strange for a junior to be getting into Extravaganza this late in the year. I got to thinking and realized that I'd only have one year to perform and no chance to be an of- ficer. Whenever I would get discouraged with what I was doing I'd think about quitting the guard. Instead of going to Ms. Bennett and telling her I quit, I just gave it another try and got the foolish idea of quitting out of my head. Nobody knows what color guard was except with peo- ple who were and this fact really showed when audition time came around. Only three new people came to the 2 weeks of practice sessions which really made us all pret- ty depressed. But we still worked hard. Ms. Bennett really gave the new members a run for their money. Within the two weeks of practice prior to the auditions, Extravaganza performed at the band’s spr- ing concert on Tuesday, May 12, 1985. They marched in the Duetchen Pfest parade on Saturday. May 18. and per formed later in the Pfest itself. The old members of the guard performed to Neutron Dance by the Pointer Sisters at both events and along with the new members, we performed a routine to We Are the World at the spring concert which was again us- ed on Friday. May 17. at the Extravaganza auditions. The Tuesday night performance was my first ever and boy was I nervous!! Since I had been in guard from January on, I was one of the six members performing. The others were Captain, Betty Bowie. Members Dow Merritt, Tonya Tiner. Laura Penley, and Anita Tidwell. Anita was also a fairly new member. To my surprise everyone was nervous. I was sure I was the only one that nervous. Ms. Bennett said she'd buy us a pizza if we did great and when we came back off the court everyone said, When's pizza! She said we looked better than we had the whole time we worked on it. Then later that night we did a routine to the popular song We Are The World.” When the night was over Tonya Tiner asked, Did you feel like crying when you came off the court? I remember the first time I performed (at a football game) I stood out on the field crying knowing that the applause was not only for the band, but for me too!! I told her I was happy and nervous and then started to picture how my first half time performance would be. That made me even more nervous. Surprisingly enough I wasn't ner- vous when we performed at the Duetschen Pfest. In fact I was rather proud. More people have been discovering what color guard is through the advancements we've made. Rifles were worked into the shows and the members were starting to show more professional attitudes. Extravaganza is a thing to remember, by Misty Johnson. Diana Costello. Melissa Teston, and Mary Tindell march onto the field for their performance at the Taylor game. The black bands were worn in honor and memory of Becky Bunch. Dow Merrit pauses for the National Anthem during the Elgin game. 26 COLOR GUARD

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Student Office Aides Require Dedication, Sense of Humor There are aides and there are aides . . . and the 1984 85 school year in- troduced one of the most interesting groups of office aides this school has ever seen. Yes, we really did have some go-getters this year. Ms. Norred and Ms. Wiess hardly ever had to do anything. The aides have even tackled a new job. a job no aide has ever at tempted before. This year they got to stand on top of Mr. Bradley s van and put words on the sign they call the Marquis. Of course, they still did the old jobs such as answer the phones. After a couple of weeks the aides could even handle prank phone calls. There was one incident where an aide answered the phone only to find a heavy breather on the other end of the line. The aide handled this simply by saying “See if I give you an excused absence.” And aides got special privileges too! All aides got to walk in the halls during the time they were working in the office. Have no doubt, after a year of picking up greensheets and retrieving students for Mr. O'Leary, each and every aide knew his way through the halls. Aides were the kinds of students who do any task that was asked of them. They never minded picking up S.A.C. assignments when teachers forgot to send them on time. The aides were also intrusted with many important chores. Sometimes, a teacher asked them to put a note or something into the other teacher’s boxes. This was no easy job. There was no telling how many boxes there were. But rest assured all aides, to the best of their ability, made sure every teacher received what was supposed to end up in their respective boxes. Aides have been known to make mistakes though. On oc- casion,when there were three people on hold, two students looking for counselors, another two students trying to sign-out without permission, and no one else in the office.your average aide might get a little confused. Not to say that Pflugerville High School officeaides were average. They were a step in front of all other aides. As far as future years, the onlyquestion. still in question, will be to aide, or not to aide. By Randy Pogue Randy Pogue uses Mr. Bradley's truck to change the marquis. Library aides were Peggy Fritch. Lupe Arellano. Dow Merritt. Melissa Dickinson Second row: Mrs. D Barton. Charles Tallman, Jimmy Barker and Kevin Levels. After donating every morning to the library his sophomore year, junior Dow Mer ritt officially shelves books this year. Senior Lupe Arellano grabs the magazine box to return a magazine used for a research paper. 28 STUDENT WORKERS