Yesterday your Cougar Band had a great day at UIL, securing an Excellent rating on stage and a Superior Rating in the Sight reading room! I am so proud of our students and all of the hard work they put into a beautiful performance yesterday. We were blessed with a pretty sizable crowd to support us too, which was amazing at 10:30 on a dreary Wednesday morning. I want to send a huge bouquet of thanks to Allison Whiddon for all of her help yesterday and every day for this program! Many of you don't see her often because she also teaches several classes at the middle school, but she is a wonderful teacher and human, and we couldn't have done it without her! 

On behalf of the Cougar Band, I just wanted to reach out and say thank you so much for your support and the celebration of our students on Monday! Representatives from Texas Health and the Mayor's Office brought the big check and announced to the kids that they had won the Wellness Grant. Many of you came by or emailed your support and the students, Ms. Whiddon, and I greatly appreciate it. Even though it was Monday morning after the break, our kids were so proud of themselves! Go Cougars!

This morning, four members of the Cougar Band represented our school in a presentation for the Texas Health Wellness Innovation Grant. In December, our Band Leadership Team brainstormed an idea for our school and put together a grant proposal. They found out they were finalists a couple of weeks ago. 

After becoming finalists, the leadership team started working on putting together a Shark Tank style presentation to pitch in front of judges, as well as prepare for questions from the panel. They wrote a script, did some arts and crafts for props, put together sound effects, and practiced their presentation. This morning, in front of a six-person judging panel, Emily Kirkpatrick, Elaina Montalvo, Erik Serrato, and Nicholas Sanford performed their presentation and did a fantastic job! The panel included community leaders, leadership members of Texas Health, and a representative from the Mayor's office. 

We should find out next week if we earned the grant, but regardless of the outcome, we are really proud of our students! This was a completely student-led process, and they knocked it out of the park. Other students who helped plan and prepare the grant were Zeke Daniels, Jack Magness, Edith Cuarenta, Avery Klundt, and Kai Madison. We will let you know how it goes - Go Cougars!

We just wanted to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who attended our band's concert last night; the students and staff really appreciate your support! We had a lovely concert and were so proud of our students. We encourage everyone to attend the choir concert next week too!

At the concert last night, 3 of our students showed off their original compositions, so I thought I would share them with you all! Kert Roberts, Erik Serrato, and Nicholas Sanford composed their own music and premiered it last night. The only help I gave them was their prompt; they did everything else on their own.

Visit the Original Band Composition page in the Photo Gallery to read about their thought process and see and hear their work! They were all so creative and did a great job with the project. 

This past Wednesday I had the opportunity to chaperone eight of our Western Hills students to go see Six! The Musical at Bass Hall! As part of the Broadway at the Bass series, the Education Department of Bass Hall sponsored over 150 students from across the district to have dinner and see the performance. We also got a chance to meet the entire cast and crew after the performance and have a question-and-answer session with them. This was a wonderful opportunity for our students, and we had a great time! 

Nicholas Henry
Itzel Lopez
Issac Street
Adrian Rubio
Vianet Garcia
Geronimo Torres
Dai Juan Williams
Rebecca Richardson

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Our band, color guard, and four of our cheerleaders participated in the Parade of Lights on Sunday before Thanksgiving. We appreciate their commitment and dedication. They helped ring in the holiday season by spreading joy to all the families along the parade route.

Link to Pictures

The Cougar Band had a very busy but very successful weekend! On Friday, your Cougars participated in the Homecoming Parade, Pep Rally, performed with the Cougar Crusaders, performed their full halftime show for the first time this year, AND performed for the Homecoming Court! If that wasn't enough, the band got up early on Saturday and participated in the Melissa Marching Showcase in Melissa, Texas in some pretty brutal heat. They had a great performance and received a lot of good feedback from the judges. We are so proud of them and their hard work! Check out our Cougar Band Instagram for more great photos: @whhs_cougarband. Shout out to our awesome students and Ms. Whiddon and Ms. Lagunas!

99 Pledges is a donation-based fundraising platform that we have teamed up with to help us achieve our goals! Donations can be made in honor of a particular student or just in general to the whole group. Any teacher or staff member that donates to this fundraiser by May 19^th will get your vehicles' tires and windows cleaned by the band during the last week of school! Even if you can't donate, please share this link anywhere you can - thank you! 

https://app.99pledges.com/fund/cougarband

The Cougar Band is also seeking out Sponsors for this upcoming school year! Do you know a company or family that may want to be a sponsor? Send them the Sponsor Level Handout and see how these groups can help support our cause. We have many perks for different levels of sponsorship from the "Green and Gold" all the way through the "Cougar Legacy". The Cougar Band is a tax-deductible charity organization that can provide these sponsors with a donation receipt as well as the perks listed above. Please help us get sponsors today! 

This past weekend, five of our Guard members competed in the NTCA Solo and Ensemble Contest and had great results! These students wrote their own choreography, practiced, and performed their solos and ensembles for a judge. Please see the attached photos above and help us celebrate these students below! 

Guard Solo - Ella Coffman - 1^st Division
Guard Ensemble - Ella Coffman, Erik Martinez, and Angel Ortiz - 1^st Division
Guard Ensemble - Kai Madison, and Roni Lewis - 2nds Division