Copperas Cove High School Class of 2011 holds 10-year reunion

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

The Copperas Cove High School Graduating Class of 2011 gathered for their 10-year reunion this weekend, with events held Friday, Saturday and Sunday, offering a chance for old friends to reconnect and reminisce. 

The festivities kicked off beneath the Friday night lights at the Bulldawgs’ homecoming football game as a group sat together in the stands and cheered the team on. The weekend continued Saturday afternoon at Camp Caylor, where the alumni gathered with their spouses and children and enjoyed the fresh air and games. The party moved to FUBAR that evening with a semi-formal banquet, complete with a table set up featuring student ID cards, a letterman jacket and pictures and yearbooks as well as a slideshow featuring throwback pictures from over a decade ago. 

Former teachers and administrators joined the alumni at the Copperas Cove High School cafeteria for a catered brunch and a tour of the high school, which has gone through renovations in the 10 years since graduation. 

Teachers and administrators included Lori Perez, Robert Cummings, Christina DeLoach, Sandra Kepler, Roxanne Davis, Charlotte Heinze, Sandra Perry (Kinabrew), Theresa Morgan, Amal Baty, Miguel Timarky and Rick and Angela Kirkpatrick. 

Timarky served as an assistant principal at Copperas Cove High School up until 2014, when he became the principal. Timarky is now working at the Career Center in Killeen.  

“It’s great to see these kids, especially them sharing what they’re doing now. It’s exciting and then knowing what some of the things that they did in high school, whether it be good or bad, you know, and seeing how they turned out. To me that’s the highlight,” Timarky said. 

This was Timarky’s first time attending a Class Reunion for his students. Although some of the alumni remembered the times they spent getting in trouble and being sent to his office, Timarky said he remembered differently. 

“I think a lot of kids just remind me about the time they spent in my office, but my memories of those kids is just being out in the hallways and just seeing them go from class to class and just being respectful and saying ‘Hi,’” Timarky said. 

This weekend’s events were organized by Shelby Campbell and Lina Tuiasosopo. Campbell served as the Class of 2011’s Class President during high school. 

Campbell said planning the event was a bit nerve-wracking in trying to gauge who would be interested in attending and whether the event would even be able to happen with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We were super excited to see everybody and see who could make it out, and when people started buying tickets and saying they were going to be there, it just kind of like made it more real, and it was just really cool,” Campbell said. “It was really fun to get everything together for everybody and hoping everybody would like it enough to wanted to do it again eventually.”

Campbell said being able to reunite with her classmates from 10 years ago was special. 

“I’ve always been one of those people that really cared about their class and the people that they grew up with,” Campbell said. “Some people think it’s lame, but me and Lina too, we were very, very excited to see people that we grew up with and a lot of us were together for a long time throughout school, so it feels like coming back to family, like a family reunion on top of the class reunion.”

Campbell said that they are going to work on trying to make the 15-year reunion in Las Vegas come to life over the next five years. 

The tour on Sunday was led by Campbell’s mom, Roxanne Davis, who led the group from the cafeteria first down the hallway to the Fine Arts hallway and then back through to the other hallways and to the old gymnasium and near the JROTC and Dance hallway before heading back to the cafeteria. 

Campbell said that the tour of the high school was nostalgic for her. 

“I feel like all the nostalgia just smacked me in the face,” she added. “It just brought up memories. I can remember like specific conversations even or moments or things of times with friends in certain places in hallways and, you know, seeing different classrooms, remembering what those classes were. Especially when we walked by one of the classrooms like Mrs. Perez’s classroom, we went to school, and she was here with us while we’re walking through it. Mrs. DeLoach, the same thing. We walked right by, into her hallway. Even for her, she said that was crazy to feel, being back in the school so it’s cool. It brought up a lot of emotions of friends and good times and things like that.”

 Lina Tuiasosopo and her husband, Caleb, brought their five children to the brunch and tour of the high school on Sunday. 

“I think a lot has changed in the high school, but it was pretty cool,” Lina said about the tour. “It’s very nostalgic and the little ones didn’t know what was going on but Cohen, he’s super excited about it. He was like, ‘Oh, did you have this class? Was this your locker?’ I think it’s making him excited to go to high school, like coming back and seeing this.”

She said that the reunion weekend brought back so many good memories. 

“I feel like I lost touch with a lot of the people that we went to high school with, and it was so good seeing people, even people I didn’t hang out with [in high school],” Tuiasosopo said. “I felt like we all still got along really well when we saw each other. I think it’s so cool even if people weren’t in our groups that we originally hung out with, we all still came together for the reunion. I thought it was so awesome.  I got a little emotional when we were going through the yearbooks and like looking at the pictures on the slideshow- it just brought back memories, and it’s just so good to see everyone.”

Tuiasosopo said she and Campbell wanted to change the stigma surrounding high school reunions and the viewpoint of them being considered “lame” and not fun. 

“We wanted to hype it up, and I’m glad we did,” Tuiasosopo said. “I think it was a lot of fun.”