![Adding a tray of canned corn to the pile, junior Michael Collop assists in transporting donations for the Holiday Food Drive. The event, hosted schoolwide from Dec. 10-17, raised over 5,000 food items to deliver to the Parkway Food Pantry, helping several families in need. [The drive] is a great thing for us to do because you're giving to those who are less fortunate, and it helps provide for people who can't provide for themselves. [The] competition is always fun, too. It was fun to be in [social studies teacher Jess] Chazen’s class, because he always gets worked up over [the competition]. He made it exciting, and was always convincing us to turn in cans for the drive,” Collop said.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/feature-photo-unsung-2.png)
![NEW CHALLENGE, NEW TEAM MEMBERS: Every season, VEX creates a new game that robotics team members are faced with and have to build a robot to compete in. This year’s game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals in order to score points. The change in games each season is something that robotics teacher Audrea Moyers appreciates.
“One of the things that I like about VEX is that they have a new problem to solve every year,” she said. ¨Even though the equipment’s the same, they have to analyze the game, and they have to come up with solutions that are unique that year. They are using their knowledge from prior years, but they have to kind of redesign a problem.”
As returning teams were faced a new game, some new teams and members had to adapt to a uncommon playing field and game.
“Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match, so I think they learned a lot,¨ she said. ¨It’s hard just watching a video online to know how it’s actually going to be in person, so they all learned a lot about what gameplay is like, how to work with an alliance partner [and] how to adapt during the day to changes.”](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_9283-1-1200x800.jpg)
Less is more.
Everyone knows the saying, but the motto rings especially true for Coppell senior wide receiver Tucker Cusano.
There tends to be a very specific stereotype around the position group: they are flashy, loud and sometimes viewed as selfish. However, if you ever get to sit down with Cusano, you will learn that he not only defies this stereotype, but he is the complete antonym of it.
So much so that the defining trait about him has not been his size 3X hands or his speed on the field, but his silence.
“I think that’s naturally who I am,” Cusano said. “I just sit back and let my game talk. I don’t really have the skill of talking trash because some people can just say whatever they want. Me not talking is just me trying to think through what the person who’s teaching me or hearing something and getting it through my head. Out of football, I’m definitely there to mess around, make a few jokes and be around people that I know and love. I’m definitely a whole different person off the field than I am on the field. It’s just like how I play.”
Inspired by his father, Mark Cusano, a former linebacker for the University of Southern California, Tucker’s journey to football started when he was merely 4 years old playing flag football.
“Growing up, my dad told me about all of his mistakes and taught me to be a better person and try to get to the level that he was at, but also do it in the right way to where I don’t make the same mistakes,” Tucker said.
Tucker started out playing linebacker, but as time went on he tried quarterback and eventually settled on wide receiver in seventh grade at Coppell Middle School East. Luckily, Tucker had already been practicing for the moment.
“I always had really good hands because I used to play catch with my dad a lot,” Tucker said. “When I was 5 years old, he would throw a ball over the trampoline net and I would have to jump up and catch it. We did that over and over again, almost everyday just because I enjoyed it. I didn’t really think that it would have any benefit for me, but my dad knew that it would.”
Mark also instilled in Tucker his work ethic. Once Tucker started developing more as a wide receiver, he began working with personal coach and former NFL tight end DeAndre Goolsby.
“He’s one of my big inspirations,” Tucker said. “He’s been through it and he made it to the league and played for four different teams. He is teaching me about what mistakes he made and that there’s so much more than just, ‘Hey, run this route.’ It doesn’t really matter how deep or how fast you are, he taught me the little pieces that make you a great receiver.”
From training with Goolsby to doing extra practices with his dad, Tucker’s work ethic inspires his coaches and teammates to work harder for the person beside them.
“Everybody wants the glitz and glamor, being recruited and playing college ball and maybe even the next level after that, but if you fall in love with the process, then it’s even more rewarding,” wide receivers coach Tony Newsome said. “That’s one of the things that really stands out to me about him is that he’s committed to being a good football player, he’s committed to being a good student, he’s committed to being a good young man and respectful of his parents.”
For many athletes, the goal is to play at a Division I school for their sport. The same was true for Tucker. However, his commitment process started off slow, having only received one offer by the second semester of his junior year.
“There were some times where I was just thinking, ‘I don’t know if I want to do this anymore,” Tucker said. “I would get to that point because it felt like everything was going right for some people and then it felt like I was not being seen by anybody. It got to my head a lot and then I started to go to camps.”
After what seemed like an eternity for him, Tucker received an offer from Rice in June. Within the same month, he committed.
“I was kind of in shock because I was just like ‘Wow, this is all the stuff I’ve been working for,” Tucker said. “It was kind of unreal to me. The goal was to play Power 5 football and play at USC like my dad did, so there was a defeated feeling in me like I didn’t make it to the level I wanted to. It was back and forth between ‘You didn’t get the goal that you wanted, but you got really close to it.’”
In his final season at CHS, Tucker and his coaches are looking to savor his time as a Cowboy.
“It’s funny you watch these guys grow,” football coach Antonio Wiley said. “He was this little skinny, lanky kid and now all of a sudden he’s got this great physique, he runs out there and he’s a big strong kid with a muscular build and he said he wanted to work to get a scholarship and he’s done that. I’ve watched the young man who didn’t necessarily run the best routes as a freshman and as a sophomore, and then all of a sudden he goes into his junior year and gets a little better. Now going into his senior year, his willingness to go out and put in the work so that he becomes a better football player has made us a better football team. I’m honored to call myself his coach.”
This story was originally published on Coppell Student Media on September 19, 2024.