What a year 2024 has been. We tried to make a brief photo essay to mark some of the most memorable moments and ended up with this odyssey of a product. What is most remarkable is the number of significant and moments and compelling images that we left out of this essay. We are pleased to share this collection as our final Tuesday Top 10 of the calendar year. Honestly, it’s more of Tuesday Twentysomething. Happy New Year to all Knights wherever you are as you mark the new year. We wish you the best of days, weeks and months in the year ahead.

JANUARY

SMILE AND SAY FREEZE: Owen Johns, Sydney Piper and Alex Thomason react to a thermometer reading during Audrea Moyers’ eighth-period fourth-year engineering class on Jan. 16.

The thermometer reading–42 degrees–revealed a larger central Austin truth that there’s weather and then there’s McCallum weather.

Take away three periods and four degrees, and we can recreate Moyers’ arrival to school that morning. When she walked into her room to prepare for the 11:05 a.m. start time, it was 38 degrees, much closer to the freezing temperatures outside than an acceptable indoor temperature. With McCallum’s continuing HVAC reliability issues, Moyers wasn’t surprised.

“I was expecting it,” Moyers said. “I’m wearing three layers today. I was anticipating the 40s, so it was actually cooler than I expected it to be.”

While the temperature was close to what she expected it would be, Moyers determined quickly that the room was too uncomfortable for her to conduct her classes.

“I knew I probably couldn’t teach in there,” she said. “I’m probably not able to use that room all week because it’s so cold.”

Fortunately for Moyers and her students, she was able to move to another room she frequently uses to teach for the day, but she was worried about other teachers who might not have that option while a cold front shrouds Texas in freezing temperatures.

“I have more than one room,” Moyers said. “This room has sun exposure and three heaters, so it’s more comfortable. There’s probably other learning spaces at McCallum that are equally uncomfortable.”

Reporting by Josie Mullan. Photo by J. Frank Webster.

MATIAS MEETS THE PRESS: Shield co-editor in chief Ingrid Smith and staff reporters Emerson Merritt and Chloe Seckar-Martinez represented MacJournalism and McCallum at the district’s Superintendent Public Forum held on Jan. 20 from noon to 1 p.m. at Marshall Middle School in east Austin.

As panel participants, they each asked interim superintendent Matias Segura, then the lone finalist to become the district’s next permanent superintendent, a question as part of a community forum to learn more about Segura and his plans for the district as he planned to take the reigns, which he did when the board formally offered him a contract on Jan. 25. They were joined by students from other district high schools, teachers and community stakeholders who were also able to ask questions of Segura both in person and virtually over Zoom. The topics covered included the budget, school safety, meeting TEA requirements, serving Title 1 schools, book banning, prioritizing the fine arts and more.

The Saturday event was moderated by Lamar Middle School librarian Tara Bowman and Joy Diaz, AISD assistant director for community engagement. It was the second forum held this week. At Thursday night’s wholly virtual session, the Shield’s online managing editor JoJo Barnard and opinion editor Nate Williams joined the student panel asking Segura questions over Zoom.

After the Saturday session, students on the panel posed for this group photo with Segura, Bowman, Diaz and the Board of Trustee members present at the forum. To see our intrepid reporters in action, click the hyperlinks on this caption. Caption and photo by Dave Winter.

FEBRUARY

GIRLS VARSITY MAKES HISTORY WITH PLAYOFF WIN: As the final buzzer sounds, bench players and Knight fans erupt in celebration as the varsity girls basketball team beat the East View Patriots 42-38 on Feb. 13 to take home the bi-district title in the first playoff win for the program in decades. The game also avenged a bi-district loss to the same Patriot squad last season.

Junior point guard Emy Chen led the team in scoring with 21 points to go along with five rebounds and four steals, and senior center Sam Cowles contributed a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Senior small forward Esme Barraz also pulled down 10 boards.

“Tonight we tried to stay focused as they have done all year, and the team did a great job,” Kehn told Butch Hart writing for the Austin American-Statesman. “Tonight was an example of their courage as we were able to recover and hold off a late rally from a really good East View team.”

After the teams battled to a 19-all tie at the end of the first half, the Knights pulled ahead with a 15-4 run to lead by 11 points with just over six minutes left in the game. After back-to-back Patriot 3-pointers cut the Knight lead to three points, a Cowles bucket assisted by Chen stemmed the Patriot comeback.  As the clock ticked down, free throws by Chen and Barraz, plus a late Chen steal, sealed the win.

The Knights advanced to the area playoffs where they lost to Lake Belton at a neutral site. Photo by Francie Wilhelm.

UNDEFEATED CHAMPS. Senior point guard Finn Corrigan receives the district championship trophy from Camilla Gammerdinger, the daughter of athletic director Thomas Gammerdinger, moments after the varsity boys basketball team won its last district game on Feb. 13,  defeating Northeast, 82-53, to completed an undefeated district season. For the team’s seniors, the game marked the last time they would play on their home gym floor.

Corrigan said the game was a big deal because it was Senior Night and because they had a chance to finish the district season undefeated.

“Obviously we’re 13-0, we want to close out the district title,” Corrigan said before the game. “[We want to] do something that we haven’t done as a program in 26 years so we’re excited. It’s gonna be fun, but we also need to stick to the game plan.”

There was also a rollercoaster of emotion for Corrigan going into the game knowing he was going through pregame routine, watching JV games and warming up in the back gym, for the last time.

“It all really hit me,” Corrigan said. “I was definitely pretty sad, but I was also happy because we won district. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do since I was a sophomore.”

The game was notable for another reason. With just a few minutes left in the game, the girls varsity team returned from McNeil High School where the earned a bi-district playoff victory over East View.

Coach Daniel Fuentes called a timeout so that his team and the crowd could acknowledge the returning bi-district champs. Fuentes was quick to credit his assistant coach Carlin Shaw for the touching moment of one team pausing to congratulate another.

“A few minutes before the game was over [Coach Shaw] went to get the district trophy for the presentation,” Fuentes said. “He saw Coach Gammerdinger, so he handed him the trophy and noticed the bus.”

Shaw then dashed back to the bench and encouraged Fuentes to call the timeout.

“I thought it was a great idea,” Fuentes said, “so as soon as the girls were about to walk in the gym I called the timeout. It was a very cool moment.”

Fuentes also credited the booster club president for making an announcement at halftime to encourage the crowd to give the girls a champion’s welcome upon their return home.

“Everything just worked out really cool,” Fuentes said.

After the game, Corrigan described his and the team’s emotions as happy and ecstatic, knowing that they had worked hard to get to this point and all of their efforts were coming together.

“This is what we’ve been talking about for years; this is what we’ve always wanted to do,” Corrigan said. “We’re looking forward to the next game, a playoff game. I’m not saying this doesn’t mean anything, but we need to win this [next] game.”

The Knights were not able to advance past the bi-district round as they fell to Cross Creek, 47-34. The Knights will, however, have another crack at the Eagles in 2025. Along with Bastrop and Anderson, Cross Creek are in McCallum’s district (24-5A) for the first time this season.

Caption by Callen Romell. Photo by Julia Copas.

OPENING DOORS TO APPRECIATING BLACK HISTORY: Freshman Paityn Jones speaks as part of the panel during the Black History Month assembly during fifth period. Jones said that being a member of the Knights Steppers and having Black teachers have given her spaces where she can be herself.

On Tuesday Feb. 20, members of the Students of Color Alliance put on a Black History Month panel, welcoming all students and faculty of McCallum to learn about their personal experiences with being Black at a predominately white school.

Seniors Gigi Kahlor, Sebastian Banks, Braylen Belvin, Terron Hall and Jude Masoni; juniors Robin Kulhanek, Brianna Miller and Trinity Richardson; and freshmen AJ Brown and Jones spoke at three sessions during fifth, sixth and eighth periods.

Jones felt that being a part of the panel gave her the chance to connect with other Black students as well as the audience. She said she loved getting the chance to share her own experiences with the students and faculty members who attended the program.

“It’s really good to be able to share my truth and hear other students’ truths,” Jones said.

Jones and fellow freshman Brown were not the only differences in this year’s program.

Kahlor, who has been on the BHM panel for two years, felt that this year’s panel was more engaging and entertaining than last year’s panel.

This year there were many more students who were excited to be on the panel and answer questions, encouraging passionate and enthusiastic discussion. The panel discussion was preceded by a poetry reading by Jendayi Innocent and a narrated performance by the Knight Steppers.

“This year, especially compared to last year, was the best year for the student panel,” Kahlor said. “The performances were on point, which was my favorite part.”

Going into the panel, Kahlor expected only a few classes to show up, but they were pleased when so many students and faculty showed up and asked questions.

“I didn’t expect it to be filled this year,” Kahlor said. “Last year people interacted but not as much as this year, so I was just blown away.”

Kahlor is not only a part of the Black History Month Panel, they are also the president of the Mac Student of Color Alliance. According to Kahlor, just within this past year the club has tripled in size. The SOCA has helped initiate many activities to celebrate Black History Month including putting on a hair wrap demonstration, a movie knight to watch Sister, Sister, and the Black Girl Magic art contest, as well as getting students to hear from guest speakers. As part of this year’s Black History Month celebration, several classroom doors were decorated by faculty, by students or by a combination of both.

Caption by Chloe Seckar-Martinez. Photo by Dave Winter.

SCOTT NAMED TEXAS HIGH SCHOOL JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR: Surrounded by her peers, her family, her teachers, plus local politicians and reporters, Senior Shield co-editor-In-chief Alice Scott discovered on Feb. 29 that she had been named Texas High School Journalist of the Year. Texas Association of Journalism Educators executive director Cindy Todd delivered the good news at a surprise party thrown in Scott’s honor in the library during her eighth-period newspaper class.

Scott received the award after submitting a website portfolio outlining her seven years of journalistic experience. The TAJE judging panel, made up of both former and current journalism educators, analyzed applicants based on a rubric established by Journalism Education Association that focuses on 11 categories, including leadership, writing, reporting and visual communication skills. According to Todd, the judges concluded that Alice had “excelled” in all after evaluating her “impressive” portfolio.

Under the assumption that the Shield staff would be working on fundraiser posters in the library, Scott was “surprised” to find a celebration waiting for her. Surrounded by her family, friends, teachers, administrators, AISD trustees, fellow Shield staff members and KXAN news teams, she was provided with an award plaque and flowers to commemorate her accomplishment.

“It felt like nothing out of the ordinary walking to the library,” Scott said. ”We walk in and I see a row of administrators. And I’m like, ‘What is going on? This is fishy.’ I turned the corner and see cameras. I’m like, ‘No way. This is not happening right now.’”

Scott was aware the results of the competition were being released soon but was unaware she would find out this way. Walking into the scene, Scott says she “didn’t know where to stand.”

“I think it was just kind of in shock,” Scott said.

After Scott was presented with the plaque, Todd called on Shield newspaper adviser David Winter to say a few words. Choked up at first, Winter was drawn to tears as he spoke out about his time working with Scott.

“It’s almost like [Alice and I] are colleagues more than a teacher and student, you know, because I’m learning from her,” Winter said. “I guess I was emotional because I realized that I’ve learned from her as much as she’s learned from me. … I’m a better teacher after four years of her being here because I’ve learned from her in so many different ways.”

For Scott, applying to the competition was an opportunity to create a portfolio for herself and to reflect on her years of experience. She had “no expectations” of coming out on top.

“I know there are so many other people who are doing great student journalism out there,” she said. “And so it was really such an honor to get this award. And it was really sweet that everyone who’s on staff was here and that my parents came.”

Scott felt “shocked” to learn her parents, adviser and staff had known of her accomplishment before her and had kept it secret for so long.

“I found out my mom has known since Sunday, which is crazy,” Scott said. “And Mr. Winter also found out on Sunday. It was like I have been lied to. I’ve been tricked for this whole week! And I’m honestly impressed how well people were able to keep up the facade.”

Scott went on to be named the JEA national Journalist of the Year at the Spring JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention on April 5 in Kansas City. She became the first McCallum journalist to earn that honor and the record eighth student journalist from Texas to be so honored. The morning after she attended the prom, Scott was presented with a $1,500 scholarship at the ILPC Spring Convention April 21 at the University of Texas.

Caption by Morgan Eye. Photo by Maggie Mass.

MARCH

WILD, WILD WIN AT WESTLAKE: Second baseman Lupe Ruedas and catcher Jack Casey are first to the mound to congratulate relief pitcher Nico Sanchez for earning a game-ending strikeout with the bases loaded that preserved the Knights’ 5-3 win at Westlake.

Behind a stellar performance on the mound from senior Sam Stevens, the varsity baseball team beat the nationally recognized 6A powerhouse for the second time in four years.

Flirting with a complete game, Stevens pitched six innings, giving up only four hits, allowing no earned runs and striking out five Chaps.

Sanchez pitched the seventh in relief, striking out three and stranding three to end the game and give the Knights the win against a team that was ranked No. 6 among 6A teams at the time.

Going into the game, Stevens felt prepared because he had played Westlake the previous three years and knew what beating them felt like after the Knights felled them in 2021. He also felt confident after his performance in the team’s previous games in which he put up impressive stats.

“I knew that if I would attack the strike zone and challenge the hitters, my team would have my back on defense, and that’s exactly what happened,” Stevens said.

To start the game, Stevens gave up a hit and a walk in the first inning, putting two runners on base without any outs. He escaped that troubling inning without giving up any runs. He believes that the escape made the eventual victory much more likely.

He credited pitching coach Steve Searle with providing in-game guidance that helped keep him level-headed. The words of wisdom helped him stay poised and trust that his team was behind him.

“Coach Searle has coached me for four years, so he knows me well,” Stevens said. “He gave a small piece of advice and told me to stay within myself and not try to do too much.”

Throughout the game, there was some jawing between the two teams as both squads were fired up. Stevens was proud of how his teammates stayed focused and put their all into the game.

Despite Stevens’ heroics on the mound, the Knights trailed 1-0 after five innings. The Chaps plated an unearned run in the fourth.

Mac put a five-spot on the board in the top of the sixth. After Sanchez was hit by a pitch and senior Nathan Nagy and Stevens drew walks, Sanchez and Nagy scored on passed balls, and John Dietz drew a third walk in the inning.

After Dietz stole second, Charlie Cox was intentionally walked to load the bases with one out. Lupe Ruedas drew a walk for the sixth free pass of the inning to bring home Stevens and keep the bases loaded. CJ Willie delivered the big blow, an opposite field single to right with two outs for the only hit in the inning to drive home Dietz and Cox and make it 5-1.

Stevens in the bottom of the sixth and then Sanchez in the seventh made the four-run lead hold up.

“Winning a big game like that is exhilarating, and I wanted to embrace that feeling,” Stevens said.

For his efforts, Stevens was named the 5A pitcher of the week for the state of Texas. Stevens wasn’t done after this stellar outing. On April 12, he hurled a perfect game against district contender Navarro and on May 22, he celebrated his commitment to play collegiate baseball at Xavier University with a signing day ceremony in the fieldhouse.

Caption by Callen Romell. Photo by Carlye Levine.

GRITTIEST WIN IS NOT THE PRETTIEST WIN: As head coach Thomas Gammerdinger claps for his team, defenders Isa Lopez Reed and Ruby Barnett flank Madi Briggs as she raises the area championship trophy before rushing to her teammates with it. Considering that Lopez Reed, Briggs, Barnett and Sienna Gunning anchored the back line throughout the game, the image seems like an apt symbol for how the game was won. The varsity girls soccer team defeated Magnolia 1-0 in the second round of playoffs at Cub Stadium in Brenham. The victory mades the Knights area champions and propeled them to the third round of the 5A UIL state playoff tournament.

Senior Sarah Hauck scored the only goal of the game midway through the second half.

“It really was a total team goal,” Hauck told the Shield. “Everyone was fighting for the ball, and it got crossed over to me in the middle. I took a touch and shot the ball to the bottom left corner. It honestly felt like slow motion.”

After Hauck scored, with only about 20 minutes left in the game, sophomore midfielder Maya Tackett said the Knights knew they had to protect their advantage.

“Before the goal, it was very much forward-focused, with us trying to do everything in our power to score,” she said. “We knew we had to manage the game and finish it out strong.”

Head coach Thomas Gammerdinger said he was proud of how his team battled against a physical team that had a size advantage over the Knights.

“It was definitely the most physical game that they’ve played: the grittiest but not the prettiest,” he said. “It was not a pretty game for either side. It was a slugfest. … No one possessed the ball too much. Play was frenzied with the teams battling for the ball the whole time.”

Perhaps no one typified that toughness more than senior goalkeeper Rylee Hissey who earned a clean sheet despite the Bulldogs putting a lot of shots on goal.

“Rylee Hissey totally stood on her head,” Gammerdinger said. “I would say she had 20 saves.”

Hauck offered praise for Hissey’s herculean effort in goal but also said the entire defensive back line played great in the game preserving the narrowest of margins to an area championship. The starters on the back line defending Mac’s goal are Gunning, Briggs, Barnett and Lopez Reed.

Those close to the girls varsity program throughout the years know this team is special. The last varsity girls soccer team to make it to the third round played in 2006.

But Gammerdinger said that the win wasn’t just historic in terms of girls soccer at Mac. He said that he was hard pressed to remember many teams that have made it to the third round of the playoffs.

“In terms of the last 15 years, this is a historic moment for our athletic program,” Gammerdinger said. “Seeing good kids have success never gets old.”

Those kids had high praise for their head coach who was thrust into the role unexpectedly after the departure of Barney Guerra who started the season with the team.

In the wake of her team’s historic win, Hauck expressed appreciation for Coach G stepping in to lead the team, adding that he played a major part in making the win possible.

“He brought a new perspective and tenacity to the team,” Hauck said. “He has been very supportive but at the same time challenged us to be our best.”

Tackett pointed to the tough loss to LASA, which could have turned the entire season south.

“Losing to LASA put our spirits down, but he viewed it as an opportunity to grow.”

And so the team did too. They haven’t lost (save for a playoff scrimmage against Rouse) since by the way en route to a district, bi-district and area title.

Hissey said that the positivity helped fuel the team’s current win streak including Thursday’s game against Magnolia.

“He was very adamant about [our ability to win] in our most recent game and gave us the confidence to play our best,” Hissey said.

Georgetown, which claimed its area title with a hard-fought win over Montgomery Lake Creek on Friday, ended the Knights’ historic run in the third round the 5A state playoffs the following Tuesday. But Hauck is among the Knights who have moved on to play collegiately. She celebrated her commitment to play at Tufts University with a signing day ceremony in the fieldhouse

To read our unabridged story about the team’s area championship victory, please click here.

Caption by Camilla Vandegrift with additional reporting by Julia Copas, Emerson Merritt and Dave Winter. Photo by Emerson Merritt.

APRIL

AS REAL AS YOU CAN BE: Knowing the eclipse on April 8 was a once in a lifetime event, senior Sydney Safarik took the experience for all it was worth. When she heard her Be Real notification sound, she knew she only had two minutes to capture her surroundings for all her friends to see.

Safarik knew she couldn’t ask for a better moment for the notification to go off. Outside with her friends in the midst of the rare solar eclipse totality. She gathered her friends, told them to pose and forever captured her moment in the eclipse that would go down in history.

“Right as the eclipse was coming off of total coverage my Be Real notification sounded,” Safarik said. “I asked my friends to quickly pose with their classes so I could capture us in half darkness.”

The McCallum administration arranged for students, teachers and staff to camp out outside as the eclipse materialized above. Set with safety eclipse glasses, and reminders to practice the safe eclipse protocols, students around 1 p.m. traveled outside, where they would remain until totality arrived. Set in the path of totality, Austin experienced nighttime darkness for several minutes in the middle of the afternoon.

Safarik said the experience was unique.

“It was so magical,” Safarik said. “I felt so lucky that I lived in a place where we could witness this special event at its fullest potential and be able to share it with my friends and classmates.”

While Austin itself was in a perfect spot to experience the eclipse in its totality, the weather didn’t cooperate.

“I would say it was a little funny to me that on this absolutely momentous occasion, an untouchable solar event that only happens once in a lifetime … it was cloudy,” Safarik said. “A little less than ideal considering the circumstances; however, I was not expecting to be so happy at being able to spend the eclipse with my friends.”

While the school prepared designated time for students to view the eclipse outside their routine daily activities, attendance rates plummeted. According to Principal Andy Baxa official attendance was at 59% with juniors having the highest percentage of absences, and 25-30 teachers were out for the day as well.

“I know that a lot of people stayed home today to watch with their families, which I totally understand,” Safarik said. “But I think it is very special to share it with a big group of people as well.”

The next time Austin will be in totality during a solar eclipse is 2343, more than 300 years into the future. Given the certainty that she won’t be around three centuries from now, Safarik seized the experience for all it was worth and appreciated its uniqueness.

“I will remember taking pictures with my friends, waiting for the sky to clear and everyone yelling as soon as they could see the sun and moon for even a second,” Safarik said. “I felt so lucky that I lived in a place where we could witness this special event at its fullest potential.”

Caption by Chloe Lewcock. Photo by Dave Winter.

STUDENTS STAGE WALKOUT FOR PALESTINE: Between 50 and 100 students walked out of fourth period on April 29 and rallied by the main entrance to protest the presence of law enforcement and the arrest of students at UT Austin’s campus the previous week. The walkout was part of a coordinated protest at Mac, Ann Richards and LASA.Organizers created signs and made speeches in support of Palestinians in the Middle East and denounced the repeated Israeli military attacks on Gaza. Several student protesters called it “genocide” during their speeches to the crowd.

As students yelled chants through a megaphone, administrators and AISD police watched nearby. The increased presence of officers was announced in a message to families yesterday evening by principal Andy Baxa.

Baxa announced in the same email that the school was committed to creating a safe environment for students and that the walkout was not a school-sponsored event.He said he met with organizers before the walkout to discuss parameters for the day’s event. After the walkout ended, Baxa said he was pleased that the protesters had honored those parameters.

“I had three topics I wanted to cover: where the protest would take place, how to protect the learning environment for those who were still in class, and lastly we talked about free speech versus hate speech,” Baxa said.

Sophomore Beatrix Lozach said she hoped the walkout at Mac would raise student awareness about the events in the Middle East.

“I asked for the megaphone and devised a chant to remind us why we were there,” Lozach said. “I decided to go to the walkout because I consider the persecution of Palestinians by the Israeli government to be abhorrent.”

Sophomore Nayeli Azul said he hoped that students would take away from the walkout the understanding that they have a powerful voice that can demand change.

“A lot of the stuff that’s been going on at UT is very disheartening, and it can be really hard to continue when you know that those are the risks,” Azul said. “We as Mac students do not agree with genocide, and we do not support our U.S. government funding that, and we call for the U.S. government to defund, and we call for a ceasefire. What we want is for peace and to use our First Amendment right.”

According to the New York Times, at least 50 students were arrested today. The Statesman tonight is reporting the number arrested to be at least 100, and KVUE reported tonight that Travis County “officials have been informed that 100+ protesters may be soon brought to jail.”

The protests on campus began last week and have also caught the attention of Republican Gov. Greg Abbott due to the large number of tents set up on campus lawns.

“No encampments will be allowed,” said Abbott in a statement. “Instead, arrests are being made.”

Lozach hopes that the walkout will encourage civic participation among high school students and provide an opportunity for teachers to put the current protests in the larger contexts of student protests throughout history.

“I hope that the walkout resonated with teachers who are afraid to integrate civic responsibility into their subject matter,” Lozach said. “It’s so important for students to know when and how those rights have been taken away for various groups.”

According to multiple KXAN reporters, UT student protesters plan to set up encampments again tomorrow.

Caption and photo by Nate Williams.

MAY

NEW BEGINNINGS: @macyouthdanceco directors Natalie Uehara and Terrance Carson held a ribbon cutting ceremony before the program’s spring performance, “Perennial” on Saturday May 11 to introduce the new dance building, which opened in February. The event was also accompanied by the Samba Knights to enhance the festivities.

Uehara said the event was very exciting for everyone involved in the McCallum dance community.

“Mostly it was families of dancers, as well as the foreman of our construction company. We also had some alumni parents as well, which was nice,” Uheara said. “It was super exciting and high Energy.”

After the performance, the program also held an after party inside the new building.

“We had a live DJ and we had food and beverages, and it was a really big, fun celebration,” Uehara said.

Uehara said the opening of the new building created a lot of growth for the Dance program, and the Fine Arts program as a whole.

“It’s amazing, it makes us feel validated as one of the strands in the Fine Arts Academy, and it also opens up a lot of possibilities for other strands as well,” Uehara said.

Overall, Uehara said over the last few years, the dance program has expanded a lot due to more opportunities for students to be exposed to the program.

“I feel it’s definitely grown a lot over the past few years. Being a bigger part of the campus has helped that a lot and also having different outlets for the program, like a lot of theater kids or Dance I kids that didn’t know it was a possibility, later on join the program,” Uehara said.

To more pictures of Perennial, please click this link.

Caption by Josie Mullan. Pictures by Chloe Seckar-Martinez.

TIME FOR PI: Sophomore Chim Becker and retiring math teacher Paul Pew pose in front of the library mural Becker created in Pew’s honor. Pew, a beloved math teacher and pianist, retired at the end of the 2023-2024 school year after 33 years of teaching. On Wednesday May 22 in the library after the fourth-period final exam, sophomore Chim Becker unveiled their mural dedicated to Mr. Pew.

“He made math really fun for me this year,” Becker said. “I have struggled with math in the past, but I finally started to understand it and have fun with it.”

Becker also stated that the mural was a visual representation of what they were thinking when taught the mathematical statement known as Euler’s Identity.

“After he [Mr. Pew] taught me about Euler’s, it kind of blew my mind, so I guess in a way this mural represents what happened in my head at that moment. It’s this super cool statement in math that involves the most important figures in math, like zero, one, pi—I don’t remember exactly—but it kinda blew my mind.”

When asked what they would want to say to Mr. Pew as a final goodbye, Becker said, “I just hope he knows that he changed so many lives, like on hard days, I look forward to seeing him.”

Becker added that Pew’s talents extend beyond mathematics.

“He’s a great pianist, he’s a great artist, I feel like there needs to be more people like him in the world.”

Two days later, on Friday May 24, he addressed his colleagues at the year-end faculty meeting. He told them the before becoming a teacher, he was branch manager at a bank.

“It was a good job, I was good at it, and I just didn’t feel like I mattered, and I wanted to do something that mattered, so I think we [teachers] matter.”

He joked that he only had five dress shirts and they were getting old, so I was time for him to go.

“I have loved working with you,” he said. “You are the luckiest people in the world to work at McCallum. This is a great, great school, so be happy you’re here.”

Caption by Katie Martin. Photo by Sophia Manos.

PURE JOY AT GRADUATION: College and career counselor Camille Nix takes advantage of her preferential seating at graduation, moving between superintendent Matias Segura and principal Andy Baxa so she can greet senior Terron Hall as he receives his diploma at the McCallum commencement ceremony at the Burger Activity Center on May 30. Nix said that Hall came to Room 130 every morning to deliver a similar hug and morning greeting to Nix. “He is the most kind kid in the world,” Nix told the Shield. “He is pure joy.”

The McCallum commencement ceremony took place on a Thursday afternoon at the Burger Activity Center. After the class filed into the arena with pomp and circumstance, senior class president Hannah Herrera and student body president Olivia Hexsel led the Pledge of Allegiance and the Pledge to the Texas Flag. The band played the Star Spangled Banner, and the choir sang the Billy Joel classic, “And So It Goes.” Speakers included District 4 Trustee Kathryn Whitley Chu, Superintendent Matias Segura, principal Andy Baxa, salutatorian Sadie Roselle and valedictorian Hannah Van Houten.

Following the certification of graduates and the awarding of diplomas, the band played the school song and the graduates filed out into the unforgiving Texas heat, which did not seem to affect the collective mood in the slightest.

Caption and photo by Dave Winter.

JUNE

AN ALL-STAR STUDDED EVENT: Jaiden Frausto (Dobie), Adrian Perez (Northeast), Desmand Zacarius (Northeast), Sebastian Valdez (Navarro) and Matt Consuelo (Northeast) perform as part of the 137-member Austin All-Star Band. The All-Star Band, one of many marching in the Juneteenth parade, included musicians and dancers from AISD schools including Northeast, Navarro, LBJ, Eastside, Dobie, Webb and Sadler Means and was led by Northeast ECHS band director Rory Guice.

“I used to come watch the Alvin Patterson Battle of the Bands, which was hosted at Nelson Field the evening of the parade each year starting in 2005,” he said. “Once I began teaching in Austin ISD, I became an assistant director of the All-Star Band in 2010. I took over as head director of the All-Star Band in 2017.”

Austin All-Star Band members participate in a camp for two weeks leading up to the Juneteenth Parade. The Austin All-Star Band Camp is free of charge and introduces “Show Style,” typical of HBCU marching bands, to local students.

When he started with the All-Star Band, Guice was the only director who had HBCU experience. A graduate of Prairie View A&M University, he was a proud member of the Marching Storm.

“Drumline, the movie, was a great introduction of the HBCU style of bands to the masses,” he shared, “but the full community is huge, spanning all over the U.S. with a rich history of tradition in marching bands, brass bands, and drumlines.”

Caption and photo by Lillian Gray.

A RUN FOR THE AGES: After a successful debut Friday June 28 at the 2024 Texas 7-on-7 Championships in College Station, a team of varsity players, including senior Devon Robinson shown here catching a touchdown against Akins on May 18, faced a relatively local opponent in Pflugerville Weiss in the Round of 32 in the Division 1 championship bracket. With wins by 12 points and a six points to its credit against only a one-point loss in group play at the state tournament, McCallum proved its mettle on the biggest summer stage.
The great run at the tournament ended for the Knights in the opening knockout round as Weiss snuck past Mac, 14-12. In their four games, all against state-qualifying teams, the Knights outscored their opponents by 15 points.

It was a considerable achievement for the Knights just to make the tournament in the first place. To do so, the Knights went undefeated at the 7-on-7 qualifying tournament held Saturday May 18 at Lake Travis High School. The Knights went 3-0 in pool play, defeating Akins 34-7, Lake Travis 20-19 and Cedar Park 28-26. After winning its pool, McCallum defeated future district opponent Bastrop 35-13 in a qualifying round to earn a berth in the State 7-on-7 Tournament.

To read more about the Knights’ undefeated run in 7-on-7 at the Lake Travis tournament, click here.

Photo by Julia Copas.

JULY

CIVIL RIGHTS ACT TURNS 60: President Joe Biden spoke at the LBJ Library on July 29 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Biden’s keynote speech was preceded by musical performances by five-time Grammy-nominated musician Ruthie Foster and the Huston-Tillotson University choir, as well as speakers like Ambassador Andrew Young, who introduced Biden, and actor Bryan Cranston, who reenacted President Johnson’s 1964 speech to the nation marking the passage of the Civil Rights Act and his signing it into law.

Throughout the speech, Biden highlighted Johnson’s numerous contributions to the country and the lasting and important impact those pieces of legislation have had on American society.

“Together with the Voting Rights Act and the Fair Housing Act, these three landmark laws he signed are remarkable in their scale and their scope,” Biden said. “Taken together these three Acts have made this nation fundamentally more fair, fundamentally more just and most importantly, fundamentally more consistent with our founding principles. And we’re a better nation because of them. We must be clear: their work, our work, is not done. It’s not done. We do not celebrate these laws as part of our past, but as critical components of our future.”

Despite much of his speech’s goal to look back on important historical decisions, Biden took the chance to speak on the opportunity lawmakers and Americans have today to create a more democratic and balanced government. Due to recent events, like the July 1 Supreme Court ruling on Presidential immunity, Biden created a sense of urgency surrounding the topic of reforms needed to ensure a more ethical Supreme Court: term limits and mandatory ethics rules.

“I think President Biden outlined an important agenda concerning the Supreme Court,” Doggett told MacJournalism after Biden’s speech. “As a former Texas Supreme Court justice myself, and the chair when I was there of the Ethics Committee, I’m deeply concerned about the conduct of the Supreme Court and the lower public standing that the court has now. The immunity decision was a disaster; it upends the system of checks and balances.”

This event marked Biden’s first time back in Austin since 2021 and created a noticeable impact on much of the city, with major streets like I-35, being shut down for the Presidential motorcade as it made its way to and from the Austin-Bergstrom Airport.

For complete coverage of Biden’s Austin appearance and the ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act, click here.

Caption and photo by Lillian Gray.

KNIFTON SAVORS OLYMPIC DEBUT: Class of 2018 alumnus Kate Knifton was all smiles after she and her Team USA teammates caught China in the final 500 meters to win repechage heat on June 30 and qualify for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 Women’s Four event final on Aug. 1 at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium.

Needing to place in the top two in the repechage to advance to the women’s four final, the U.S. boat edged China to win the heat. By placing first, Knifton and her teammates became the first American crew to make it to the W4 final since the event was reinstated at Tokyo games four years ago.

“Winning yesterday definitely gave them a confidence boost,” said Kristin Koenig Brewer, Kate’s mom who is also in Paris to watch her daughter race for her country.

While the victory was no doubt a reason to believe in Team USA, so too was the fact that the team’s time in completing the 2,000-meter course (6:32.48) shaved more than 17 seconds off the time the team posted in Sunday’s qualifying heat 1 (6:49.66). The time was also more than 10 seconds faster than any time of any of the nine boats in the competition.

What caused the drastic improvement?

“I think our boat does the best when it’s do or die,” Knifton told John FX Flynn of row2k.com. “We know what we have to do. It’s really special to be able to trust your boat completely and know that it’s not just you creating a rhythm alone. It’s the whole boat doing it. Everyone seems really cool under pressure, and we really rise to the occasion as a group.”

Kate’s dad, Matt Knifton, a UT rower himself back in the day and the owner of the Texas Rowing Center where his daughter got her start in rowing, said that the team benefited from the more favorable wind conditions on Tuesday. In Sunday’s preliminary heat, the team raced into a headwind and placed fourth in 6:49.66 behind heat winner Great Britain (6:42.57), finals qualifier New Zealand (6:45.44) and third-place China (6:49.12). China led early in the race, New Zealand led at the midway point, and Great Britain claimed the lead in the third 500 meters before rowing to victory by almost three seconds.

“It was exciting to get our first Olympic race,” Knifton said in a story posted on the US Rowing website. “Now, we’re really excited moving forward just to keep improving and see the potential of our boat.”

With a neutral wind on Tuesday, the team flashed some of that potential, winning the heat and qualifying for the event final two days later.

In that final, Kate Knifton and her teammates placed fifth. Team USA started off the the line well but was behind the leaders by the 500-meter mark. By the final 500 meters, the Americans had made up a lot of ground and pulled ahead of China.

“I was really proud of how we executed,” Knifton said in a story posted to the USRowing website. “I think we had a really clear goal of how we wanted the piece to go. We’re all emotional because we really felt like we gave it our all, and of course, everyone wanted to do well for each other, even more than for ourselves, and I think we really executed it the best we could have on the day.”

While the team did not medal in the event final, there were many positives from their team’s Olympic experience. For one thing, the U.S. team advanced to the finals. At the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, the U.S. women’s four placed seventh and did not row in the A Final. Another positive sign came from the men’s result in the same event where Team USA captured gold. The men’s four finished fifth at the Tokyo Olympics. The team’s last medal (bronze) came at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. In their post-race comments, U.S. rowers Liam Corrigan and Justin Best both cited the team’s experience working together as a key factor in their victory.
During the broadcast on E!, NBC analysts Paul Burmeister and Lindsey Shoop both commented on the women’s four team’s relative youth and inexperience.  Burmeister even quoted USRowing High Performance Director Josy Verdonkschot as saying, “They are young and wild. They don’t think too hard and that’s a good thing.”

All four rowers were making their Olympic debuts. Knifton was the youngest rower in the boat at 24. The 2024 Olympics could very well be a stepping stone to a future Olympics should Knifton wish to pursue it.

Koenig Brewer, said she will enjoy the rest of her 2024 Olympic experience with the race pressure behind her. Knifton attended the closing ceremonies and did some traveling with her sister Sophie (Class of 2020). She also expressed how proud she is of “our Olympian.”

All of us at MacJ have to say we like the sound of that pronoun. We might remind everyone as an aside that her Class of 2018 peers did vote that she was Most Likely to Make the Olympics, so Mac Nation knew even back then how special Kate is.

She can add her 2024 Olympic experience to an already singularly legendary rowing resume which—according to the US Rowing Olympic press kit—includes, but is not limited to, these accomplishments: world champion in the women’s four at the 2022 World Rowing Under 23 Championships; back-to-back NCAA champion in the women’s varsity eight at the University of Texas in 2021 and 2022; three-time Big 12 Conference champion in the women’s varsity eight (2019, 2021, 2022); 2023 Big 12 Athlete of the Year and 2023 Big 12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year; and USRowing 2022 Under 23 Female Athlete of the Year as well as being a 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year nominee.

Not bad for someone who started rowing as a sophomore in high school because her dad urged her to give it a try.

Photo by //row2k.com/USRowing, Reposted here under a usage agreement between USRowing and row2k.com.

AUGUST

A MILESTONE MOMENT: Surrounded by her teammates on the court and serenaded by the cheers of her teammates on the bench, junior setter Lexi Rosenblatt soaks in the moment immediately after senior outside hitter Greta Carlson’s kill sealed the deal on Roseblatt’s 1,000th assist as a McCallum Knight during the team’s home opener against Belton on Aug. 13.

“Lexi was at 996 assists going into the Belton match,” senior outside hitter Greta Carlson explained. “This means 996 of her sets had resulted in kills. For the Belton match, she only needed four more to reach 1,000 assists, which is a huge accomplishment.”

The milestone moment came toward the end of an epic first set, which the visiting Tigers ultimately won, 30-28. After junior libero Aaniya Thornton served and then received Belton’s first volley, Rosenblatt set Carlson with a trademark high-arching pass that arrived perfectly so that Carlson could rotate her torso to face the entire court and unleash a clear winner that shot like a laser beam from her outstretched right arm cross court for a textbook kill, one of her career best 26 recorded during the game.

“It was a really great moment for the team, and brought a lot of joy and energy to the court,” Carlson said afterward. “I am very proud of Lexi for reaching such an amazing goal!”

What did Rosenblatt think of the moment?

“It was such a fun moment for me because we knew it was coming,” she said. “Greta and I were counting down each assist I got that set until the last one. I felt so loved and supported by my whole team. It was really special. It was a long time coming and had always been a goal of mine, and it was a really great feeling after all the hard work.”

The milestone is even more remarkable when you consider that she is only a junior and that she missed a huge chunk of her freshman season due to injury.

How was she able to do it?

“Lexi is really explosive and has a quick reaction time on the court,” Carlson said. “She is talkative on the court and has good control of the ball. She also has a high game IQ and knows what sets/plays to run at certain times.”

So she is skilled and she’s smart. Anything else?

“Lexi is such a special player, not only because she is an amazing and consistent setter, but she also leads the court with positivity and energy,” sophomore teammate Sienna Martens said. “She is so uplifting to anyone in their head, and gets so excited for us when we score points.”

Uh, Sienna, we don’t all speak volleyball fluently. What does “in your head” mean?

“It means when someone may not be playing great and is acting negatively, they are usually ‘in their head’ saying stuff that’s bringing them down,” Martens said. “Lexi does a really great job of comforting people in those situations and helping them get back to having fun.”

It wasn’t just the players who were happy for their star setter.

“Lexi has been underrated for a while,” head coach Amy Brodbeck said. “I am so proud of her and her accomplishments.”

We’re not sure how such a complete player could be underrated, but we think that might change this season, and the home opener provided a perfect case in point.

Rosenblatt did not just reach a milestone assist, she recorded a team-high 31 assists. And that’s not all. To culminate a comeback from a 2-1 deficit, Rosenblatt ended the game with a stuff block that sent the crowd, the bench and her teammates on the court into a euphoric playoff-atmosphere celebration.

“There is absolutely no better way to end a five-set thriller than stuff blocking the hitter that has been killing your team all game long,” Rosenblatt said. “I just had it in my head that she was not getting past me this time, that [senior middle hitter] Helen [Rogers] and I would be up and ready to shut her down. It’s just an insane way to end the game.”

Later in the season, Carlson had her own career milestone moment, recording career kill No. 1,000 in a straight-set win over Crockett on Sept. 20.

The Belton match foreshadowed a season filled with five-set matches that would energize fans and push the Knights to a successful season, in which they finished second in the district. The last of many five-set matches did not go the Knights’ way, however, as they lost in five tight sets to Hendrickson in the bi-district round of the state playoffs on Nov. 4.

Caption and photo by Dave Winter.

BAND BRAVES ELEMENTS AND BANDAPALOOZA: Associate band director Dillon Junkin, along with other members of the band community, stand on top of the directors podium in the band parking lot during a lighting threat that delayed the start of Bandapalooza for almost an hour on Aug. 23. From the podium, Junkin spoke to the band, surrounded by the evening’s sunset.

After an almost hour-long delay due to a threat of lightning, the band began its annual Bandapalooza performance.

“Obviously we got a little delayed and so the sun set a little bit earlier than we would have liked, but it’s just a chance for the parents to come out and to see how we go about our rehearsal cause a lot of times they don’t get to see how everything gets done,” he said. “They see the performances on the field but not necessarily how they’re created.”

Bandapalooza marked the countdown to Taco Shack, the first and biggest football game of the season. The preview performance foreshadowed the performance that band unveiled on the big stage at House Park on Thursday Aug. 29.

The performance went as planned, but the band’s departure from House Pack after the Taco Shack Bowl did not.  On the way back from the Taco Shack game, two out of the four AISD school buses full of McCallum band students got in an accident with a sedan at approximately 11:30 p.m. According to an email message that Principal Andy Baxa sent to McCallum parents this morning, students and drivers were evaluated on sight, but no student required EMS transport to the hospital. According to CBS Austin, the driver of the car was later arrested for DWI.

To see and read our complete coverage of Bandapalooza, click here.

Caption and photo by Lillian Gray.

SEPTEMBER

TUCK-ED INTO CHARACTER: Sophomore Finley McBride stands on stage on Sept. 7 at the Tuck Everlasting costume parade, ready to show off her outfit. McBride said the costume parade is an annual rehearsal step where the designers can see their final product.

“We [the cast] all try on all of our costumes so the costume designers can see if their vision is coming to life the way they want it to,” McBride said.

McBride is in the ensemble cast and also the alternate for Mae Tuck, which means she gets to play the character for one performance. Overall, McBride is very excited to be a part of the Tuck Everlasting cast, and said she is looking forward to performing the choreography of her fellow students.

“I’m looking forward to showing off the dances our choreographer Ms. Nat and assistant choreographers Zalie Mann and Zoe Maxwell choreographed, and just making art with my friends in general,” McBride said in the days leading up to opening night.

For two weekends (Sept. 19-22 and 26-29), performance theatre, tech theatre, dance and orchestra majors collaborated to bring Tuck Everlasting, the Heller Award-eligible fall musical, to the McCallum Arts Center stage. The cast performed eight shows, two of which were alternate nights, in which understudies received the chance to perform their roles.

Tuck Everlasting merged tragedy and comedy, tap dancing and ballet. From eight-hour-long rehearsals to lunches spent choreographing bows, Tuck Everlasting demanded the utmost commitment from actors, technicians, and musicians.

AJ Brown, who played young Miles and is in the ensemble, said this musical creates an impacting and memorable message.

“By the end of the story, it really helps you learn that aging is beautiful and that is something everyone should experience.”

Brown said his most rewarding moments of doing the musical was the connections and relationships he’s built with his fellow cast members.

“My favorite memories are shared with the family I built with the people I’ve been working with. It was really great to connect with all my senior friends and meet the freshman coming in. I had a great time working and getting closer with everyone due to the smaller cast this year.”

While Brown said he particularly enjoyed the rewarding feeling of being on stage.

“The best part of performing is when I step on stage for that very first time and you hear everyone yelling and clapping for you,” Brown said. “It’s really rewarding especially after all the hard work I’ve put in.”

To see and read our complete coverage of the preparation leading up to opening night, click here. To read our coverage of the two weeks of performances, click here.

Caption by Beatrix Lozach, Eva Sanchez and Adele Seeboth. Photo by Tegan Hahn.

BAND BLAZES INTO THIRD PLACE: The mellophones, along with the rest of the low brass section, carry the bass and lower tones throughout the preliminary performance of “Fury Road” at the US Bands regional competition on Sept. 28.

Junior brass and movement captain Isadora Long (right) along with Vi Hart (left), and Sam Kerns (center) led her section throughout both  the preliminary and final performances at the competition. Long said she though the performances were solid and showed improvement even if they weren’t perfect.

“The two performances went pretty well,” she said. “There were a few mistakes that could’ve been avoided overall, but there was a huge improvement from our last competition and even just between yesterday’s prelims to finals.”

At the competition, the marching band placed third overall and won best overall music. The day started out with 22 bands, with only 12 qualifying for finals. This placement was an improvement from their preliminary award, going from fourth overall to third. According to senior drum major Max Davis, the awards reflected their strong finals performance.

“I’m really happy with how the run went,” he said. “Everyone performed really well. I’m really happy with our placing. We moved up a spot form prelims, we started in fourth now we’re in third, and we got the best overall music. That’s great.”

With two back-to-back weeks of competitions, the band looked ahead three weeks to the regional competition. Davis anticipated that the band would put the preparation time to good use, preparing for tougher competition and more crucial placements.

“We have a lot of time to finish putting the show on the field and then practice getting it all really good before we perform in region in October,” he said. “We need to improve on making sure everything stays in time and just in general, leg shape.”

With a few specific things Davis believed needed more work, he also observed great progress since the start of the season.

“It’s definitely been getting better,” he said “It has been improving. I definitely do think it’s been progressing very well. Even compared to last week, it was much better.”

At the Region 18 marching competition on Oct. 22 at Burger Stadium, the band earned the 1 rating required to advance to the area competition five days later on Oct. 27.

According to senior baritone saxophonist Jon Crist, the performance at region had memorable highlights.

“Today’s performance went well,” he said. “A major highlight in today’s performance was a woodwind feature in movement 3 where all the woodwinds play together. It sounded really good and was well put together.”

Similar to Crist, senior tuba player Joaquin Hinojosa had many proud moments during the region performance.

“We managed to play loud and strong,” he said. “Although a challenge we had to overcome was time management, overall today’s performance went well.”

At the area competition at the Pfield in Pflugerville, the band advanced to finals with a preliminary performance of which they were proud.

Sophomore and member of the front ensemble, Bug De la Garza, said the band and the pit successfully integrated the fourth movement into the show.

“This was a really good performance,” she said of the preliminary performance. “We haven’t really played the entirety of our show much, but this was a great run of it.”

The final performance earned the band a sixth-place finish, one shy of the fifth-place finished needed to advance to state.

While narrowly missing a state qualification was disappointing, alumni Paulo Zambarano, a tech and an assistant teacher who has returned to McCallum to work with the drumline, said that in the larger perspective, the 2024 season was a tremendous success.

“There was a lot of positive energy out there,” he said. “You could tell that months and months of hard work had gone into the performance, it was awesome. I was so happy with how everybody was looking before hand during warm ups and I think it led to some of the success we saw out there, all around awesome, an amazing run.”

In his time at Mac, Zambarano marched in the drum-line alongside playing drum set in the jazz band, and according to him “Fury Road” is a well developed and great part of Mac’s history.

“My freshman year at McCallum the material was all very classical and straight forward,” he shared, “and these shows mainly focused on the music and virtuosity of the ensemble. As time has progressed in the Mac Band the activity progressed alongside it. The recent shows have become a lot more theatrical and complex, and have more of a story to them. ‘Fury Road’ is a great example of this, and a high point in terms of a really fun idea that also has great music, energy, and vibes.”

To read our complete coverage of the US Bands competition, click here.

Caption by Lillian Gray and Wren Vanderford. Photo by Wren Vanderford.

OCTOBER

PUPPIES FOR PALS: Setting a new Pink Week precedent, puppies were introduced into the Pink Week festivities in 2024. Two 6-week-old puppies-Mae and Millie were brought from Austin Pets Alive, and students, including Mariana Silva shown here, were able to pay to cuddle and play with the puppies.

The event turned out to be extremely popular at McCallum with a huge line twisting around the courtyard, and the PALS program reported that just on the puppy Tuesday alone, the group raised $700 dollars for the Breast Cancer Resource Center of Texas. Not only did the puppies help to raise money for the BCRC, but the event also served as an adoption event for Austin Pets Alive, as students and their families were given the puppies’ information about how to adopt puppies in the future.

PALS Member Junior Maggie Brown facilitated and organized this puppy cuddling event during lunch, with the help of her mother who is the community affairs officer at APA.

“I was in charge of the PALS “puppy committee,” which meant making sure all the required APA guidelines for puppy interactions were followed during the event,” Brown said. “It was so great to see how excited people were to pet the puppies!”

The BCRC provides life-changing resources, so it is crucial to keep them accessible to as many people in need as possible. PALS presents students with the opportunity to help organizations like BCRC to aid their mission.

“Being in PALS gives me the chance to be a part of projects and events that I really care about, and every person in PALS is so kind and welcoming, so it really feels like a family,” Brown said. “Events like Pink Week are an awesome chance for us all to collaborate and use our strengths to benefit a great cause.”

Participating in these events fosters a strong sense of community within McCallum, Brown said, and it shows the positive impact that it has on local causes.

“Today was so rewarding because people really enjoyed petting the puppies,” Brown said. “We raised a significant amount of money for BCRC, and we also raised awareness for Austin Pets Alive. Multiple people told me they wanted to start volunteering at APA after today’s event, so it’s very exciting to hear that Pink Week is supporting two Austin non-profits at once.”

By week’s end, the 2024 edition of Pink Week had raised $2,755 dollars for BCRC, within a $100 of the PALS all-time best Pink Week set a year ago. To see and read our complete coverage of the event, click here.

Caption by Sophia Manos and Josie Mullan. Photo by Beatrix Lozach.

HISTORIC OFFENSIVE OUTPUT: Senior quarterback Luke Dunham looks downfield after evading the initial defenders for a positive gain in the fourth quarter of the Knights’ 78-57 loss at eventual district champion Liberty Hill on Oct. 25. While the game did not end in the victory for the Knights, the moral victory of putting up 57 points on a team of Liberty Hill’s caliber and the offensive statistics achieved during the game make it a historic day for McCallum football despite the loss.

Dunham must have achieved the best statistical day ever for a McCallum quarterback. He threw for 501 yards and five touchdowns and also rushed for 131 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries. Those gaudy numbers increased his passing yards per game average to an impressive 316.6 passing yards per game at that point in the season.

Senior wide receive Mark Sanchez had a similarly stellar game statistically on both sides of the ball. On offense, he hauled in 14 passes for 255 yards and three touchdowns. On defense, he made 14 tackles. Heisman winner Travis Hunter would love to have had a two-way game with those stats.

Photo by Julia Copas.

SENIOR SPIRIT SHINES THROUGH: Seniors, many of them like Marios Bros. characters Theo Northcutt (Waluigi) and Joe Colaleo (Mario), shouted one last victory chant on Oct. 31 at the last pep rally of the semester: the Senior Night pep rally. As the class of 2025’s final pep rally, it held a unique significance for senior Elyza Bradsby.

“It was special because it was my last pep rally ever,” Bradsby said. “I’m never going to get to have the same experience of linking pinkies with my friends and singing our school song together ever again.”

While Bradsby will miss pep rallies going into college, her final pep rally was not filled with sadness but with happy memories. For Bradsby, a highlight of the pep rally was when the Class of 2025 won the spirit stick.

“The seniors haven’t really won many pep rally spirit competitions this year, and it was so amazing to be able to finish the year off on a high note,” Bradsby said.

The seniors didn’t just win the spirit stick; they also won a competition in which they competed against different classes to see who could throw the most hula hoops on top of a flier in a cheerleading stunt. The series of wins for the senior class only continued at the football game against Navarro, where McCallum won 65-0. Besides big wins for the seniors, the senior night pep rally was also made memorable by the special dance performed by senior cheerleaders, Blue Brigade members, and football players.

“It was genuinely so amazing to watch, and I was laughing so hard,” Bradsby said. “I absolutely loved the contrast of Blue Brigade being so professional and the boys just looking around, trying to remember what they were supposed to do.”

Over the course of her high school career, Bradsby has grown to love pep rallies. Not only do they provide a way to watch performances and hype people up for football games, they help bring the student body together. Bradsby has experienced this unifying effect firsthand.

“Pep rallies mean so much to me because it’s one of the times when we can all put our differences aside and just all be McCallum Knights, cheering on our classmates as they perform and encouraging our athletes to do their best,” Bradsby said. “It really just unites us, especially when we do things like sing our school song or do the class cheers. There’s truly just something so special about getting to all come together under one banner and just have a great time.”

Her last pep rally also gave Bradsby an opportunity to reflect on her first and bring her high school experience full circle.

“My first pep rally, I was so confused and I had no idea where to sit or what was going on at all,” Bradsby said. “I remember when we did the class cheers, I didn’t even realize we were supposed to be doing anything, and I was so lost. I remember leaving and being so out of it because my hearing was so shot from being so close to the band.”

While Bradsby may have felt lost at her first pep rally, she never stopped giving them a shot. Pep rallies slowly grew on her during the course of her four years at McCallum. Now, Bradsby values and enjoys each pep rally she attends.

“As a senior, I have been able to see myself truly become part of McCallum,” Bradsby said. “I don’t think freshman me could’ve anticipated how much I love pep rallies and how much I’m going to miss being a part of this school.”

The pep rally was noteworthy for a less sentimental reason: it occurred despite widespread rumors of a threat against the school that led many parents to come to the main office during eighth period and pick up their kids prior to the pep rally. The rumors prompted to principal Andy Baxa to send and email to parents and make an announcement to students that the rumors were not credible and that because of that, the pep rally would continue as planned. Baxa later sat down with co-editor-in-chief Nate Williams to explain how the administration and district police handles reports of threats to the school.

Caption by Elizabeth Nation. Reporting by Dave Winter. Photo by Dave Winter.

NOVEMBER

VOTERS APPROVE AUSTIN ISD’S PROPOSITION A: Ridgetop Elementary School first-grader Sebastian Celio sits outside the George Washington Carver branch of the Austin Public Library where his mother cast her early vote in the 2024 Travis County election.

In the Travis County Joint General and Special Election on Nov. 5, voters in Austin decisively passed Austin ISD Proposition A, a plan to raise teacher pay, fund campus initiatives and reduce the district’s deficit. The Travis County clerk reported that 58% of voters (177,627 voters out of 306,166) voted for the proposition.

“I’m so grateful for the community’s support of Proposition A, which will help the district retain the educators and staff whose talents underpin everything we do at Austin ISD,” AISD Board President Arati Singh told the Austin Monitor.

Although it passed comfortably, not everyone was in favor of the proposition. In addition to the 42% of voters (128,539) who voted no, 10 former Austin ISD Board of Trustees came out in opposition of the measure because of the amount of the tax increase that the state will claim under the recapture system, which redistributes local property tax revenue from wealthier to poorer districts, those with lower property values.

According to the American Federation of Teachers, a teachers union, the average per-pupil spending across the United States is currently $15,633, far more than the $6,160 spent per pupil in Texas, which has not increased in the past four years. Prop A, when set into motion, will increase the tax rate for homeowners, an extra 9 cents per $100 of a property’s taxable value.

The amount of the increase will vary based on the value of the homeowner’s residence. According to KUT, a homeowner with a home valued at $553,493 will see an increase of about $34 per month.

According to district estimates, the tax will generate $171 million. Of that total, $130 million will be subject to state recapture. The remaining $41 million will fund pay raises, district programs or reduce the district’s $92 million deficit.

Prop A will raise teacher pay across the district according to a market analysis of teacher pay. Superintendent Matias Segura told KXAN on Election Night that increases will range from less than 1% for new teachers to more than 8% for educators with more than 20 years of experience. The pay increases will be retroactive to the start of the school year.

The district plans to allocate $17.8 million toward increasing pay for most teachers and staff under a plan that will make market adjustments to pay rates with the highest increases going to veteran teachers.

“Before [teachers] go to winter break, they will be paid for all the time back from the start of the fiscal year,” Segura told KXAN. “I’m just so excited that our community showed up for our teachers.”

The district plans to spend $3.2 million on campus programs by funding instructional coaches, content interventionists as well as both special education and mental health support. The district will allocate $20 million to replenish its savings and reduce its deficit.

Senior Stella Proctor voted for the first time this year, in the presidential and local elections. She chose to vote for Prop A, believing that it would be beneficial for both students and teachers.

“I voted for Prop A because I am for increasing teacher pay and increased financial supports for the district,” she said. “As a student I’ve seen that our classrooms could use more funding than we get, and teachers deserve more pay.”

Teachers often have to pay for supplies out of their own pockets. Several teachers have second jobs outside of their teaching job, on the weekends, to make a little extra income, a fact Proctor has witnessed firsthand.

“I have both worked with teachers and substitutes in my restaurant job and have heard about how teachers end up having to take other jobs to support themselves, or their family,” she said.

“I don’t feel like that’s fair considering the immense amount of work that teachers do, so it motivated me to vote for Prop A. As someone who is considering being a teacher after college, I feel that a well-funded education system is a wholly positive thing.”

Caption by Priya Thoppil. Photo by Sofia Celio.

While parents and teachers form a marching line with rainbow umbrellas to insulate students from the hateful messaging coming from outside agitators shouting from the sidewalk, students write supportive messages with sidewalk chalk to express support for the same groups that the agitators were vilifying.

The Mac community responded to hate speech from these outside agitators with a counter message of love and support.

At roughly 8:15 on the morning of Nov. 7, a group of agitators from the Official Street Preachers gathered in front of the campus, yelling and holding signs with hateful messaging that disparaged Jewish students, Muslim students, LGBTQ+ students, abortion advocates and more.

The group isn’t new to Mac. On Aug, 22, 2023, they threw the Mac community off by showing up just before school was dismissed with no prior warning. Today though, was a different story as the group told police at Austin High on Monday that the group was coming to McCallum on Tuesday and after showing up on the Election Day holiday to find no students on campus, the group made plans to come back today.

On Tuesday night, Election Night, Principal Baxa sent out an email to parents, staff, and students, alerting them of the possible presence of these individuals. Having learned from last year’s mistakes, Baxa laid out a clear plan, which diverted students from the main agitator area on the Sunshine Drive sidewalk right in front of the main entrance to the school.

Along with the physical plan, Baxa vocalized a moral one as well.

“The biggest thing that we needed to do was not do what they wanted,” he said. “They come here because they want to be able to engage with people, they want people to get upset with what they’re saying. We can’t battle hate with hate. We’ve got to battle hate with our version of love.”

The plan to ignore the agitators worked, especially when the Mac community and people like freshman Harriet Zettner, found their version of love.

“When I came to school today, my mom, [front desk clerk and substitute coordinator Sara] Zettner suggested going outside with chalk and drawing rainbows and stuff like that around the entrance to the school,” she said. So my brother and I went out there and started drawing.”

More students joined the sidewalk chalk effort. Among them was sophomore Tegan Hahn, who created messages with the chalk that supported the groups that were the targets of the specific attacks made by the agitators.

“Me and my close friend, Paityn, wrote in chalk phrases and symbols that were in protest of the protesters,” she said. “She’s Christian and wrote Bible verses about spreading love vs. hate and ‘love thy neighbor as thyself,’ which I thought was inspiring because the agitators claimed to be Christian and were spouting hate speech ‘in the name of God,’ which was just horrible, and I think that writing those Bible quotes took power away from them.”

Joining students like Hahn and Zettner, were numerous parents, like Bromwyn Hibbard.

“I’m so proud of our kids and I love their perseverance,” she said. “I’m glad to be standing on the side of goodness. I was very surprised at how much hate speech was being shouted at children and what compelled me to come out was offering a safe space for the kids and a level of protection and love for our children.”

That morning’s event was just the beginning for Mac’s response. Baxa worked with Link Crew to initiate signs to be made and placed around school. Some reading “All are welcome.” “Freedom of Religion is a MacKnight Right,” and at the front entrance of the school: “Mac Loves our Muslim and Jewish Friends.”

“We put up signs showing support for our students who are Muslim or maybe have a Jewish ethnicity so that way they can feel that McCallum itself supports you,” Baxa said. “Even if outside the school is telling you all these nasty things about you, whenever you walk into the building I want you to know that you are loved and supported.”

To read our complete story about the community’s response to outside agitators, please visit macshieldonline.com.

Caption by Lillian Gray with additional reporting by Beatrix Lozach. Photo by Dave Winter.

DECEMBER

MAMBA MIA: McCallum girls soccer alum Mia Gomez, a Class of 2022 alum and in the center of this epic celebration photo, added a new accolade to her distinguished career soccer resume: NAIA national champion.

On Dec. 9 in Pensacola, Fla., Gomez and her SCAD teammates finished a historic run through the playoffs with a 4-1 victory over No. 2-ranked Keiser University to claim the NAIA national title in women’s soccer.

Gomez said the reality of the Bees (20-1-2) becoming national champions came to her with two minutes left in last Monday’s title game when her teammate senior Sydney Chura scored to answer the lone Seahawks goal and give the Bees an insurmountable three-goal lead.

“We never took our foot off the gas in this game and when Sydney scored … it finally started sinking in,” Gomez said. “I started feeling all the feels of becoming a national champion. Tears were rushing down my face as I looked at all of my teammates playing on the field and on the bench.”

Gomez told MacJ that the championship—the first national title in program history—was the product of a total team effort.

“Every player was so key and important in their own special way,” Gomez said. “As our coaches like to say, we had everything we needed in our toolbox to get the job done, and sure enough, WE GOT IT DONE.”

Gomez was a key contributor, scoring twice in the tournament. In the round of 16 game against No. 11 Spring Arbor University, she subbed in with two minutes left in the first half and scored the game’s only goal, assisted by Chura.

It was her first touch of the game. And she made it count.

“I was ready for my moment, and I’m really happy I was able to finish that chance on goal,” Gomez said.

Gomez found the back of the net again in a pivotal moment of the Bee’s 2-0 semifinal win over No. 10 College of Idaho. Receiving a perfect pass that Chura snuck past two defenders, Gomez flipped a shot perfectly between the Coyote goalkeeper and a defender to cement her team’s trip to the title game.

While the goals visually evoked the memories of Gomez’s most memorable goals as a Knight, she said her college soccer experience has been fundamentally different in important ways.

Where she never left the field as a Knight in scoring an all-time record 130 goals (with 35 assists), she has come off the bench to contribute at SCAD.

“College is a different animal,” Gomez said. “I’m redefining what success looks like for me. I’ve learned that my role is more than just what I do on the field. It’s cherishing the moments I have with my team off the field, leading by example and being everyone’s biggest cheerleader.”

As a collegian, Gomez has scored 16 goals and contributed six assists in her three years at SCAD. But while the stat line might not sizzle like it did during her Knight career, the joy and the success she has found on the pitch with her teammates has been next level.

“We always believed in ourselves and our ability,” Gomez said. “This group has been absolutely relentless all season, and we kept proving people wrong. We were disrespected all season, and it showed in the national rankings this year.”

The team entered the tournament ranked No. 13 and seeded ninth in the tournament even though they beat No. 2 Kaiser to win the Sun Conference championship.

“We took out numerous teams ranked in the top 10,” Gomez said. “It didn’t matter what team was in front of us: we treated every game the same, and we continued getting the results we needed. Our motto of the year was, ‘we go again’ and we always did.”

We asked Gomez what she would say to her high-school aged self and to the Knights that are about to embark on their 2024-2025 quest for greatness.

“Really soak every moment in,” she said. “BEE present and grateful for all of the experiences, friendships and opportunities you get on the field. Our three words this year: Brave, Class and Relentless. No matter the situation, we made sure to instill these words into how we approached everything, all season. It’s safe to say, those words carried us all the way to being NAIA national champions. It worked for us, so my advice would be to implement those words into your upcoming season! Go Knights!!!”

Caption by Dave Winter. Photo courtesy of Gomez.

RECORD-BREAKING BULLSEYES: The archery team hosted the biggest tournament ever held in Austin in the large gym Dec. 14-15, with schools from all educational levels, public and private, participating in the competition. In addition to this record, the Mac team also shot its highest score ever, 3309 points.

Senior Theo Northcutt, pictured, placed first in the male high school division with an individual score of 285, and sophomore Carley Lardizabal placed first for high school females, scoring 283.

Northcutt finished his first-place effort with a final round of 49 from 15 meters, meaning he shot four bullseyes and a nine with his five arrows in that round. It is much harder to shoot that well from 15 meters than from 10. Each archer shoots 30 arrows in a competition, three sets of five from 10 meters and three sets of five from 15 meters. Several archers at the tournament achieved perfect rounds of 50 from 10 meters. Both Northcutt and Lardizabal posted one 50-point round from 10 meters. Three other Mac archers also posted perfect 50 rounds: Althea Bradbury-Flores, Wren Griffis and Henry Peacock.

Shooting on her birthday and filming a documentary about archery in her down time, Lardizabal followed her first-place score with a victory in the one-arrow shoot-off, in which archers pair up and shoot one arrow. The closest to the center of the target advances to the next round until only one archer remains, which in flight 11—the flight filled mostly with McCallum archers—was Lardizabal. The shoot-off is meant to be fun not competitive, but Lardizabal did win a Bullseye Bakery cookie and a one-of-a-kind pen made from a broken arrow by Coach Nick Kalakanis.

Lamar Middle School archer Sofia Pedregon-Harrington posted the highest individual score overall with a 292, a score that included 15 straight bullseyes from 10 meters (three perfect 50 rounds) and a 49 from 15 meters. Lamar MS archer Miles Windler had the highest individual score for male archers with a 286.

According to senior co-captain Diego Custard, the scale of the tournament caused some extra stress and preparation.

“I think the size of it set it apart from previous tournaments,” Custard said, “and made it harder to do everything from inputting scores to managing and watching everyone during the times when there were archers there.”

Setup in the gym for the record-breaking tournament was extensive, lasting from the end of the school day until around 9:30 p.m. on Friday.

“We had to be extra careful when we were moving equipment, marking shooting lines and taking the tournament down afterwards,” Custard said.

Senior Sadie Swinney recorded scores for the large number of archers competing in the tournament. After she competed in the eighth flight of the tournament, Swinney received a Nobility Award for her work outside of the range and being involved with the team.

“It was really a group effort,” Swinney said. “We spent four hours setting up the curtains, quivers, decorations, prepping all the scorecards and equipment for scoring. So it was a lot of work, but I think it looked really good.”

Swinney was not the only archer to receive a Nobility Award for her work behind the scenes to make the tournament happen. Coach Nick Kalakanis also gave nobility awards to senior captains Maya Julien and junior Melea Carman. Kalakanis got emotional in discussing Julien’s strength of character in sticking with archery and her leadership role despite battling injury that made it hard for her to compete.

Kalakanis deserved a nobility award for running the tournament, but he was the one giving them out, so his captains recognized him between flights eight and nine with a surprise heartwarming speech and a gift basket of homemade treats and energy drinks.

Custard, who brought the gift basket to Kalakanis after his fellow captains expressed their admiration for their coach, said the tournament demonstrated the progress of the archery program.

“I think it was an awesome way not only for the team to show the school that they are serious, but for McCallum to set an example for other schools around Austin,” he said.

Some McCallum archers have been shooting since they were in elementary school, including Swinney, who joined the Highland Park Elementary team as a fifth-grader in the program’s early years.

“My PE coach actually started it, and it was super tiny,” Swinney said. “That year we ended up winning the state tournament, and I decided I wanted to continue shooting for as long as I could stay in a program.”

That physical education coach was Jim DeLine, who, according to Swinney, started an archery program at Lamar Middle, which then grew to McCallum and expanded to other schools in the Austin area. DeLine brought his teams of younger archers to the McCallum Invitational Tournament and beamed from ear to ear because he could come to the tournament without having to run it himself as he has so often for the last decade. He thanked the McCallum coaches and archers for helping to sustain and grow the archery community in Austin.

Swinney said it is precisely that community which has made her stick with archery for so long.

“I really love shooting, but I also love being a part of such a unique community of people,” Swinney said, “and getting to experience things and meet people I never would have otherwise.”

Custard first joined an archery team when he was in sixth grade.

“I thought it sounded like an awesome team to be a part of,” Custard said. “And me and my grandpa had shot bows in the past, so I wanted to get better at it.”

Six years later, Custard was voted to be one of the McCallum team captains. His role is to help with planning for events, teaching other archers and volunteering at tournaments like the MIT.

“I have always gone out of my way to volunteer and help the archery team,” Custard said. “But now as captain, I can be more of a role model, and I can help implement ideas I have for the team.”

Custard said his captainship allows him to help the team in ways he couldn’t before.

“It’s super cool being an older team member because people look up to you more,” Custard said. “And while you have more responsibilities, you also have more say in what happens with the team.”

Caption by Camilla Vandegrift. Photo by Dave Winter.