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By Emily Martinez
Correspondent

A four-year Westlake High School varsity wrestler, team co-captain and a dedicated student describe one person, senior Sammy Ivester.

During his freshman football season Ivester was a 5-4 receiver/corner back who weighed 95 pounds. He was the perfect featherweight, the lowest weight class, for the wrestling team.

Ivester was thrown onto the varsity wrestling team after about two weeks of training, where his first opponent was a senior wrestler.

“He destroyed me, but I never let him pin me, and he held me in a guillotine the whole match,” Ivester recalled.  “But I never quit. So, after the match, I got the respect from the upper classmen. It was really cool, because I looked up to a lot of them.”

His freshman year, he was 10 pounds under the weight limit and had no varsity experience. Ivester won one match the whole season. It was his last match of the season, and it won him third place at district.

“It was awesome,” Ivester said.  “After I won, the whole team rushed the mat and picked me up.

Since his freshman year, Ivester has grown both mentally and physically as a wrestler. Though his sophomore and junior seasons were cut short due to injuries and illnesses, he is now ready to compete.

Now a senior, Ivester is a co-captain with Cooper Scott, and  their fellow wrestlers on the team look to them for leadership.

Alex Cabezas, a junior on the varsity wrestling team, had praise for both team captains.

“Our captains are great, Sammy and Cooper both know what they’re doing and encourage us to do our best all the time.”

In his sophomore and junior years, Ivester cut weight to get down to 119 pounds. But now that he is a 5-foot, 10-inch senior, his weight class is now 132 pounds. This season, Ivester has a personal record of 20 wins and 8 losses.

“It’s better than I’ve done any year before.” he said.

Wrestling is an individual sport, but Ivester credits a lot of his success to the people he’s around at practice all the time.

“You really grow as a team, Ivester said. “You become close to the guys you train with every day, so you grow together. It’s still a team sport, because you have 13 other guys out there to watch your back while your on the mat.”

Ivester is a seasoned wrestler and a committed student who knows the importance of performing equally well in practice and in the classroom. He said he is planning on majoring in biomedical engineering in college and is not ready to leave wrestling.

“I’ve talked to some coaches, but I don’t think I’ll wrestle in college, I’ll be really busy with school. But I’m really interested what I want to study, so I’m excited about it.” Ivester said. “I’m going to miss it a lot -  the wrestling and being with the team.”

Over the past four years, Ivester has been a leader for his team, on and off the mats.

“A lot of my character and work ethic come from wrestling,” Ivester said. “It’s made me a tougher and better person all around.”

Ivester will wrestler at the district championships starting Friday at Vista Ridge.

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Photo by Ed Allen

Westlake soccer players, from left, Sharad Sood and James Baker, drive the ball to goal during a 2001 game at Westlake High School.

James Baker and Sharad Sood met in the sixth grade on a club soccer team – one tall, blonde and intimidating, the other with dark hair, a brilliant smile and lightning speed.
The team’s best players, Sood scored the goals, and Baker got the ball to him. The two became best friends, eventually playing an integral part on the Westlake High School soccer team.
“We hit it off immediately and were always cracking jokes with each other,” Baker said. “Throughout middle school, we were pretty inseparable.”
Baker’s parents taught in the Eanes school district. His mom, Mary Ann, taught second grade at Cedar Creek Elementary School for many years, and his dad, Dale, is teaching his 37th year of art classes at WHS this year. Now their son, a 200l WHS graduate, coaches soccer and teaches language arts at his alma mater. No one has a better understanding of what makes the school district great.
“Even as a small child, [I understood that] the teachers were delivering the message that success is possible for anyone,” Baker said. “Having adults in your life, be it parents or teachers, that push you to be successful is what sets this district apart.”
Life at high school was good for the two soccer heroes. They had a lot of friends. Even as a teenager, Sood had a wonderful outlook on life, Baker said.
“You never saw the guy unhappy or mad,” Baker said. “He was friends with everyone, and every relationship was special to him. He had nicknames for all of his friends, and everyone smiled as soon as they heard him yelling it down the hallway. It was impossible not to be drawn to him.”
From 1997-2001, Sood and Baker starred for the Westlake soccer team. They won first team All-District awards, and Sood set the record for career goals scored in his senior year.
The two friends kept in touch in college, but, as it usually happens, both got busy with different things. Sood was still engrossed in soccer. Baker became a kicker for the University of Texas football team and helped the team win the Rose Bowl against Michigan in 2004. The last time Baker saw Sood was in the fall of 2010, when Baker invited his old friend to his wedding to fellow Westlake coach and English teacher Ashley Grayson.  Tragically, Sood was killed a week later in a car accident.
Baker met with Sood’s parents after his death and realized that they felt a strong emotional link to the time their son had spent on the Westlake soccer team. They wanted to honor him in a way that would last. The three came up with a plan to fund a scholarship and institute the Sharad Sood Memorial Soccer Tournament. Last year, eight teams took part in the first tournament. This year, the tournament doubled to 16 teams that played at Westlake’s Chap stadium on Jan 20.
“Last year’s [Westlake] JVA team won the inaugural tournament,” Baker said. “The goal is to make the tournament the premier JV tournament in the state, and I feel like, based on the past two years, we are well on our way.”
Baker is a popular coach at Westlake.
“He is one of the most outstanding role models either of my boys have ever had,” said Corinne Cargnoni, one of Baker’s team parents. “He does something to make all of the boys feel respected and an important part of the team.  He motivates them to care about each other and to play with a ‘we’ mentality instead of ‘me.’”
Baker takes his charge with new crops of Westlake students very seriously.
“I feel like athletics offers opportunities for students to grow, both as athletes and people,” he said. “By sharing my knowledge with new generations, it gives me the chance to give back to the community that gave so much to me. The Westlake soccer program meant so much to me and players like Sharad, that having the ability to be part of the program and give that experience to players is more than I could have hoped for.”
Amid all the success in his life, Baker takes the time to reflect on his friend and the lessons they learned together.
“What I appreciated most about Sharad was that he did everything the best he could possibly do it; he took nothing for granted and made everyone he came in contact with better,” Baker said. “For me, the most important thing is to make a difference in the student athletes I am lucky enough to come into contact with. Life is hard, and things aren’t always fair, but you can always make sure to be a positive in the lives of those you encounter. Being friends with Sharad helped teach me that.”

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Wes Thomas (second place), David Cox (first) and Mattias Glenesk (third) getting their hardware from the 200-yard freestyle race at the district meet Saturday.

By Habeab Kurdi
Sports Editor

Buoyed by top finishes on both sides, the Westlake swim teams won both the boys and girls District 15-5A Championships Saturday at the University of Texas Jamail Swim Center.

Paul Corbae took home the top district swimmer honors on the boys side after taking first in the 100 breaststroke and second in the 200 individual medley.

The boys side easily won, posting 198 points to Anderson’s 118, with Bowie taking third with 116 points.

The Westlake girls also had a wide margin of victory, topping Bowie 191 to 128, with Anderson in third with 100 points.

“We learned a lot from it, won both sides pretty handily, which is nice, and in terms of performance,  it’s the first step,” Coach Isaac Grombacher said. “But it’s tough to get too excited about because it is just the beginning. This is such a first step of a meet we want to focus on what we did here and think about the end. Whatever we did here want to improve on in two weeks.”
The team will have a bit of a breather before the regional meet, which is scheduled for Feb. 10-11 at the Conroe school district’s natatorium.

The time in between the district and regional meet is vital to the Chaps chances to advance on to state, Grombacher said.

“We’ll continue resting because a lot of swimmers are tired from intense training,” he said. “Hopefully at regionals we’ll be really fresh. You see spring come early when they have time to rest. They look livelier, and there’s an actual different in how high or low their bodies are in the water depending on how tired they are.

“It’s really fun for me and a lot more fun for them than the last few months have been.”

Top finishers for the boys side include first-place finishers Audie Embestro in the 100 backstroke, Ben Ussery in the 100 butterfly, David Cox in the 200 freestyle and Mattias Glenesk in the 500 free. The 200 medley relay team of Cox, Corbae, Ussery and Embestro won gold as did the 400 freestyle relay team of Cox, Ussery, Embestro and Zack Thomas.

Both Thomas and Embestro swam the fastest than Grombacher has seen them go in a high school meet.

On the girls side, the Chap’s got first place finishes from Mackenzie Franklin in both the 50 freestyle and 100 free. Irena Martinez took first in the 100 butterfly.  The 400 freestyle relay team of Alyssa Woltemath, Olivia Muehlberger, Emma Guilluly and Mina Glenesk also grabbed a gold, while Franklin and Woltemath teamed with Margaret Beck and Laurie Prinz to win the 200 medley relay.

As some Westlake swimmers broke through to earn a regional spot, that usually meant they were displacing another teammate, giving some finishes a bittersweet feeling.

“We had so many people in the finals, usually if someone snuck their way in it bumped someone else out,” Grombacher said. “As far as the team goes, it’s a wash both ways.”

Franklin has increased her performances as the races have grown in intensity,

“She’s getting stronger and stronger each week, and my feeling is she’s going to make it to state,” Grombacher said.

Adding to the boys total with a second place finish was the 200 free relay was the team of Corbae, Jon Savage, Hayden Southworth and Andre Newlands.

In the 200 freestyle, Wes Thomas finished second, followed by Glenesk third and David Doyle fifth. Corbae, Thomas and Embestro took second, third and fourth in the 200 IM.  Ussery finished a close second in the 50 freestyle, while Southworth was fifth and Elliot Foreman seventh.

The Chaps completed a sweep in the 100 butterfly with Mariano Adame finishing second and Southworth third. Foreman was sixth in the 100 Freestyle with Savage seventh. In the 500 freestyle, Doyle took fourth, Ryan Gunn was fifth and Rob Blais eighth.

Thomas was second and David Cox third in the 100 backstroke to complete a 1-2-3 finish, with Clayton Clark in seventh place. Wes Thomas added a third finish in the 100 breaststroke while Adame was fifth and Brock Jones was seventh.

Others scoring for the Westlake girls included Mina Glenesk, who also captured third place in the 200 freestyle, in which Muehlberger was fourth. In the 200 IM, Martinez finished second and Guilluly third, with Anne Shedlosky taking sixth and Bryanna Hundt seventh.

Beck grabbed fifth in the 50 freestyle, followed by Catherine Anne Prideaux in sixth and Bayley Wiltshire seventh. In the girl’s 100 butterfly, Muehlberger was second and Beck third with Magda Contreras finishing sixth. Woltemath added a fourth-place finish in the 100 freestyle, while Wiltshire was seventh and Alec Marshman finished eighth.  Contraras took fourth, Glenesk fifth and Maddy Hunt eighth in the 500 freestyle.  Woltemath, Guilluly and Prideaux finished second, third and fourth, respectively, in the 100 backstroke.

In the 100 breaststroke, Shedlosky took second place, followed by Prinz third, Jessica Conrad fourth and Olivia Kirkpatrick sixth. The 200 freestyle relay team of Franklin, Wiltshire, Muehlberger and Beck also took home a second place silver medal.
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Courtesy of Open Arms

TOP: Westlake High School students, from left, Catherine Anne and Rebecca Prideaux, organized a T-shirt drive that brought in more than 1,500 shirts for use as recyclable material by Open Arms, a business that supports refugee women. ABOVE: From left, Iraqi refugee Raya Thanoon, Sudanese refugee Flora Lado and Gabonese refugee Odile Moukissi sift through donated T-shirt material they will use to create new clothing and toys for retail sale through the social organization Open Arms.

Two Westlake High School students made the national news earlier this month by organizing a T-shirt collection drive to support Open Arms, an Austin-based organization that benefits refugee women.

Catherine Anne Prideaux, a WHS senior and her sister, Rebecca, a junior, have collected more than 1,500 T-shirts in their efforts to provide recycled material to women seeking asylum from as far away as Bhutan and southern Sudan. The women, who work for the social organization Open Arms, use the material to make scarves and skirts. The sale of the popular refashioned clothing provides them a living wage.

The WHS T-shirt drive only lasted two days from Jan. 10-12, yet it attracted the attention of Channel One News, a satellite news program designed for teens. Catherine Anne was a little surprised by the success.

“I was expecting about 1,000 [shirts] and didn’t didn’t fully realize how many shirts we had until we unloaded everything into our garage to start washing and folding,’ she said. “People anonymously dropped trash bags full of shirts on our front porch; the Student Council donated boxes and boxes of shirts; and students walked into their classrooms and dumped armfuls of old T-shirts in the collection bins.”

Austinite Leslie Beasley founded Open Arms in 2008 with a team of women interested in helping refugee women escape the trap of minimum-wage poverty by finding a way to earn a living wage in Austin. The organization employs refugees to create one-of-a-kind products from repurposed T-shirts. The clothing and other items are sold online and to retailers throughout the U.S.

Beasley spent volunteer time in a refugee camp in Uganda in 2010. She was hit hard by the stories she heard from women, who she said have suffered such tremendous loss and so much violation of their human rights. When she returned to Austin, she discovered there was a large, “invisible” population of refugee families in Austin.

“No one was aware of them at all,” she said. “I began to talk to people I knew about the problems refugees face here in Austin, and they were all surprised. There was a total lack of awareness.”

Beasley began helping the refugee community by registering their children for schools. She saw kids from low-income housing living in poverty. Parents were working two or three minimum-wage jobs, trying to keep afloat.

“They were working so much, their children were basically growing up unsupervised,” Beasley said. “Parents couldn’t help with homework, and the language barrier was so strong. It was a trap – a poverty trap.”

The refugee women she met were eager to work, they just needed a chance for adequate pay that would allow their families to thrive and make a better life, she said.

“I saw a strong spirit of optimism,” Beasley said. “I saw people who wanted to do whatever it took to make a future for their children. I was seeing that desire, but no options.”

Open Arms is set up to provide that chance for a better future, and to do it in an earth-friendly way by turning throw-away clothing into things people want. The idea has caught on. Beasley just returned from her first trip to the Dallas clothing market Monday, where she was looking for retailers interested in buying her clothing products at wholesale. She found receptive and interested buyers.

“Retailers are expressing that customers are beginning to ask for products that they know the background on; they enjoy products with a bigger story,” she said. “They want to be good global citizens. We wanted to show the business community that you can do business differently. You can be a part of solving global issues and still be a viable business.”

With their T-shirt drive, the Prideaux sisters have done more than provide raw material for Open Arms to turn into viable products. They have drawn attention to the organization and the plight of the women who work there.

“They are out there talking about it,” Beasley said. “That awareness is a big part of our purpose. It’s a big part of changing lives.”

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]]> http://westlakepicayune.com/2012/01/27/t-shirt-drive-by-students-helps-refugees-earn-living-wage/feed/ 0 http://westlakepicayune.com/2012/01/25/close-encounters-of-the-westlake-kind/ http://westlakepicayune.com/2012/01/25/close-encounters-of-the-westlake-kind/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:31:59 +0000 Dane Anderson http://westlakepicayune.com/?p=15916

Photo by Dane Anderson

From left, Westlake High School theater teacher Gary Jaffe, alumni actress Kathleen Fletcher and Hill Country Middle School drama teacher Pam Fletcher-Friday prepare last week for a preview performance of “The Alien Baby Play” at a Westlake residence.

Bringing a baby into the world as a single mom is a tough job to undertake. Imagine how much tougher it would be if the father was not of this world. What’s a girl to do?

If you are Bethany, the sole character in the interactive “The Alien Baby Play” by award-winning New York playwright Walker Herbert, you sell tickets to the birth on Craigslist. The one-woman play will be featured at the Salvage Vanguard Theater as part of FronteraFest Long Fringe on Saturday and Sunday and again on Feb. 5. It stars New York actress and Westlake High School graduate Kathleen Fletcher, daughter of Hill Country Middle School drama teacher Pam Fletcher-Friday. It is directed by Gary Jaffe, artistic director of the Austin TUTTO Theatre Company, a WHS theater teacher and a former student of Fletcher-Friday’s. The local drama teaching icon created the costumes for the play, including a pregnancy belly with a few surprises.

“Acting has always been a part of my life – a huge part,” Fletcher said. “Mom was in a show when she was pregnant with me, so I guess you could say that was my start and I have come full circle.”

The endeavor is a bit like homecoming week for Fletcher-Friday.

“I feel like both Kathleen and Gary are my kids,” she said. “I’ve had them together since the sixth-grade, and I’ve worked with them on and off throughout the years. It’s a blessing to be working with them as talented adults. They make me up my game.”

The new play has no script and the audience is an integral part of the evening’s experience. It is a different show every night.

When Fletcher and Herbert got together to try and come up with ideas for a new play, Fletcher was absorbed in thoughts of the Rapture and the apocalyptic predictions for 2012. She took the scriptless, one-woman show idea to Jaffe, who snapped it up for the TUTTO Theatre.

“The opportunity to produce a new play by a New York playwright acted by a legendary Austin/New York actress was a no-brainer,” Jaffe said.

The company worked hard to make the setting of the play feel like home to audience members. Early performances took place in Fletcher-Friday’s West Lake Hill’s home without stage lighting or props.

“We want things to happen in very humdrum, normal circumstances that are out of this world,” Jaffe said. “We wanted to make the alien familiar and the familiar alien. It’s been a challenge to make sure we convince the audience of the realness of this world and, at the same time, convince them of the strangeness.”

Fletcher gives an uncannily natural performance, helping those seated around her bridge the gulf of disbelief. She is charming, open and believable as she walks around stage balancing her huge belly and eating vegetables. It’s unconventional theater.

“Career-wise, it’s dangerous what she is doing,” Fletcher-Friday said. “As a mom, I’m like – ‘Yikes. My girl is out on a limb.’ As an actress, I’m thrilled about it. As a drama teacher, I can tell you it is really inspiring.”

Jaffe earned a cum laude with distinction bachelor’s degree in theater studies from Yale University. He was the 2010 recipient of the Richard B. Sewall Cup for outstanding scholarly achievement and creative promise. Friday is an award-winning freelance costume designer whose creations are currently featured in Austin, Washington, D.C., and Off-Broadway productions. Fletcher has won numerous awards for acting, including a B. Iden Payne Award for Best Actress in a Drama in 2008.

The Vanguard Theater is located at 2803 Manor Road. Tickets to performances of “The Alien Baby Play” are $10 and available through FronteraFest.org.

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Photo by Esther Robards-Forbes

Dr. Eydi Bauer, a chiropractor and author of “Life After Bread,” about living with gluten intolerance, recently moved to Austin and began practicing in the Westbank.

A little more than three months ago, Dr. Eydi Bauer packed up her car, loaded up her dog and drove from chilly Northern California to Austin to start a new adventure and the next chapter of her life.

Many Central Texans can relate to Bauer’s story. She was looking for a warm climate, friendly people, a place that could support her practice and, perhaps most importantly, a place where she could get the food she needs.

Most people don’t take local cuisine into account when planning a major move, but Bauer has celiac disease, a type of intolerance to gluten found in wheat, barley and rye grains, that can make food choices a life-and-death equation.

In 2004, Bauer was given the diagnosis of celiac disease. While she mourned briefly for the cakes and pastas she would never be able to eat again, she finally had an answer to the question of why she had felt progressively worse her entire life.

“It was almost as if someone had shackled me down to the earth my entire life and when I cut out gluten, it was like someone had cut those shackles,” she said. “It was like taking off a blindfold and being able to see for the first time.”

Within two weeks of cutting out gluten, the health problems that had plagued Bauer her entire life, such as joint pain, fatigue, intestinal issues and depression began to clear up. She was so amazed by the transformation that she decided to write a book, “Life After Bread,” which was published in 2006.

Bauer, a doctor of chiropractic, clinical nutritionist and applied kinesiologist, recently joined the team of doctors at Whole Body Health in the Westbank. There, she specializes in helping patients with chronic pain, allergies and injuries.

And thanks to her own battle with gluten intolerance, she’s learned to recognize the symptoms in her patients and recommend some simple tests and some diet adjustments.

While going off gluten has helped many of her patients resolve symptoms of inflammation, pain, stomach problems and even a few cases of pre-diabtes, this simple fix is far from easy.

Gluten is in a lot of food.

Almost every processed food has some form of wheat, barley or rye lurking in it. Those choosing a gluten-free diet have to become dedicated label readers and learn about safe foods. They learn to ask questions in restaurants and which stores carry gluten-free products. Gluten can be a sneaky substance, creeping into things like some chicken soups, which use it as a thickener, or into protein bars, which often use barley malt as a natural sweetener. Even most soy sauces have it.

But there is hope, Bauer said.

The single hardest food for her to give up was pizza, but Mangia and Brick Oven have great gluten-free pizzas. In fact, Austin is a gluten-free foodie paradise with gluten-free aisles in most supermarkets and gluten-free offerings on many menus.

Since going gluten-free, Bauer said that she has even discovered some foods she might not have tried before, such as quinoa and Brazilian cheese breads made from tapioca starch. She enjoys trying out gluten-free pancakes, muffins and cakes and her book includes tasty recipes for everything from gluten-free meatloaf to chocolate cake.

Since moving to Austin, she’s been hard at work building her client base at Whole Body Health, trying out Austin’s many yoga studios and hitting the hike-and-bike trail in her spare time.

“When I decided to leave California and started doing my research, I can’t tell you how many people said I should move to Austin,” Bauer said. “After the 30th person told me, I said, ‘I guess I’m moving to Austin.’ Everyone said they could see me here.”

Bauer will be hosting an event at Book Woman on Feb. 22, to discuss “Life After Bread” and living with gluten intolerance.

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Mitchell Cargnoni (18) makes a move against a Westwood defender in a 6-1 win Saturday. Photo by Chad Taylor

By Habeab Kurdi
Sports Editor

Picking up three wins over the weekend, the Westlake boys soccer team went undefeated and showcased its abilities at the Governor’s Cup Tournament in Georgetown.

The Chaps beat Belton 3-2 on the tournament’s first day Jan. 19, then topped El Paso Franklin 1-0 Friday and crushed Westwood 6-1 Saturday.

“It’s encouraging,” coach John Campbell said. ”I think the game against El Paso was a big boost because I think we realized finally what it takes to win, and that passing the ball around was what we needed to be doing. They became a bit less selfish in that game. Every game is a progression and it’s still early. We have a lot of confidence right now which is good, but not being overconfident is good because we still have a lot of work to do.”

The Chaps got contributions from all over in the win over Westwood. Tucker Hume tallied two goals while his brother Walker Hume posted a goal and an assist. Eric Tan and Ben Hernandez added goals, with assists going to Mitchell Cargnoni, Brien Twomey, Ryder McGough and Leigh Robertson, with a Westwood own goal mixed into the win.

The morale-boosting win over Franklin featured a second-half game-winner from Chris Benavides on a long through ball from Tucker Hume. Benavides beat the defense, briefly lost the ball but regrouped to bend the ball around the keeper for the 1-0 lead, and win.

“It was one of the nicest goals of the tournament, and that was our best defensive game as a team,” Campbell said. “They didn’t get a lot of good looks on net, and a lot of that was us having a better defensive-team effort and everyone recovered really well through the midfield.”

In the opening win over Belton, Westlake fell behind 1-0 before posting three unanswered goals over the first and second half. Belton scored late to bring the final tally to 3-2. Both Hume boys scored in the win and Vishnu Reddy added a score as well, with McGough and Hernandez earning assists.

Westlake is winning early thanks to some team-wide camaraderie, Campbell said.

“We’re just having fun right now, there’s a lot of smiling going on and they genuinely like each other,” he said. “Some of the kids I didn’t anticipate playing as much or scoring are working hard for their time and are deserving of it.”

Westlake heads south to the Pearland Tournament this weekend, where the Chaps will face more tough teams from around Texas. The team starts with Cy-Falls 8 p.m. Thursday, then plays Dawson at 6 p.m. Friday and close out with Klein Oak at noon Saturday before possibly going into the winner’s bracket following that.

“It’s always really good to play different style. It gets you ready for a deeper playoff run when you’ve seen some of the different styles and stuff,” Campbell said.

By Habeab Kurdi

Sports Editor

The Westlake boys soccer team gained bragging rights over visiting Lake Travis with a runaway win Jan 13.

Eric Tan scored two goals while Vishnu Reddy and Tucker Hume each notched a goal in the 4-1 victory. Hume, Brien Twomey and Josh Gonzales all had assists in the win.

Lake Travis put the first crooked number on the scoreboard with a penalty kick in the first half, booted through by Dylan Tracy to give the Cavaliers a 1-0 advantage.

The Chaps responded with a score from Reddy to tie it 1-1, then Hume’s goal made it 2-1 headed to halftime and Westlake rolled from there.

“The first 20 minutes or so, we were nervous,” Westlake coach John Campbell said. ”We had a good crowd with the first real game at home. After they scored we settled in and played pretty well. In that second half, in particular, we used the outside and wreaked havoc on the flanks and torched them pretty good on the outside.”

The Cavs didn’t get close the rest of the way as Westlake’s defense dictated the tempo of the game. The back four of Matt Favaron, Sam Morgan, Walker Hume and Gonzales kept the load light for goalie Stefano Frantellizzi, who was solid in the win.

“Our back four played really, really well,” Campbell said. “The progression is coming nicely even though Sam is a converted forward. I like to get all my backs into the attack a bit. In second half did that pretty well, and I look for those guys to assist a lot.”

Reddy’s goal to tie things up is just another sign of the way he’s been playing lately, especially out in front of the box.

“Right now, he’s just been scoring goals — he’s like the little trashman, he likes to sit in the box and pick balls up as they come in,” Campbell said. “He’s really good at pouncing on balls and putting them in.”

Tan put through both goals in the second half, with the first one a work of beauty on the pitch.

“That goal was the best yet of the season,” Campbell said. “We had four one-touch passes, and that’s something we’re working on a lot. We want to be dangerous in a lot of different ways.”

Westlake was able to adjust on the fly and take whatever the defense gave them, something that will be a big key once district rolls around.

“What I’m really happy about with this team is our ability to adapt,” Campbell said. We didn’t necessarily play our typical game. We relied on longer balls than we normally do, but the adaptation to use what was there and to exploit Lake Travis’ weaknesses was great. It was not a really pretty game, but it was very effective.”

The Chaps won the contest while playing without center back Adam Valencia.

Westlake will travel to play in the Governor’s Cup Tournament at Georgetown starting today. The Chaps play Belton on the first day, then take on El Paso Franklin Friday and Westwood Saturday.

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Photo by Ed Allen

The video board atop Ebbie Neptune Field at Chaparral Stadium will soon be replaced with a new, improved model that will better serve fans and Westlake High School students in the Technicial Education Crew program.

Plans for Westlake High School’s new video board will go forward as planned, following a West Lake Hills City Council decision Jan. 11 to grant a variance for the new board on the condition of a new noise agreement with the school.

Eanes school district representatives first came before the City Council in December to secure a variance needed for the new board. Chaparral Stadium is outside of the city limits, but is within the city’s extra-territorial jurisdiction, and city officials say the city has some authority regarding structures there.

Several council members complained at the December meeting that they could hear play-by-play announcements during games from as far as a mile and half away and agreed that approval of the new board should be tied to the implementation of a noise agreement with the school. Councilman Spencer Stevens argued at that meeting that for smaller games, such as middle school football games and other events with lower attendance, the public address system’s volume should be lowered to match crowd size.

Under the agreement that was approved by city and school district officials, the stadium’s public address system will be set to level 3.5 as a default. Currently, most events are set at level 6. Other audio inputs, such as music, presentations or videos, will be disabled.

District events, such as football games, band competitions and Hyline performances, will not be subject to the noise agreement, meaning volume settings can be changed and music and video can be included.

Also exempted from the agreement are nonprofit events, such as the annual Relay for Life, where the district is a sponsor. Other events will be able to crank up the volume if there is an agreement between city staff and district officials.

The prohibition on music for applicable events will not apply to the broadcast of the national anthem.

Eanes school board president Kal Kallison said during the City Council meeting that the school board had informally approved the agreement earlier in the week and assured council members that it would be signed by the superintendent.

“Regardless of the vote, we think this is a good idea,” Kallison said. “We’re actually happy that this sound issue came to us. We wanted to fix that irrespective of the video board. Irrespective of the vote, we are going to implement this policy because we think this is the right thing to do.”

The council approved the variance in a 3-0 vote, with Councilman Earl Broussard absent and Councilman Spencer Stevens abstaining.

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