Copperas Cove High School Classes of 1988 to 1993 Hold Reunion

By BRITTANY FHOLER

Cove Leader-Press

Members of the Copperas Cove High School Classes of 1988 to 1993 gathered first at the City Park and then at the G&B Saloon for a joint reunion to reminisce about their high school years and create new memories. 

This year marks 30 years since the Class of 1991 graduated from Copperas Cove High School, when the school mascot was still the Bulldogs. 

Class of 1991 member Troy Holverson was the mastermind behind this year’s reunion and said he wanted everyone to have a chance just to get together. 

“Just getting together with people I haven’t seen in like 30 years,” Holverson added. 

Holverson said he was surprised at how many turned out to the reunion, but he and his wife were already looking forward to the 40-year reunion and hoped to spread the word even more. 

The potluck at the park was originally planned for Ogletree Gap, but due to a double-booking error, the party moved over to City Park where classmates brought their families and enjoyed each other’s company and a potluck lunch. Once the sun went down, the fun continued at the G&B Saloon, complete with themed drinks such as the Blue Bulldog (whiskey, blue curacao, sweet and sour and sprite); the Senior Skip Day (whiskey, coconut rum, watermelon pucker and Blue Mania); and the Sadie Hawkins (spiced rum, coconut rum, banana pucker and pineapple juice). 

Bonnie Sullivan and Christi Price, both members of the Class of 1991, showed up to the G&B Saloon for the evening reunion. 

“It’s fun. It’s great, especially after everything that’s been going on,” Sullivan said about hanging out with long-lost classmates. 

Price said that it was great to reconnect with classmates, especially those who they haven’t seen in 30 years. 

Also attending the reunion celebration was Andrea Padilla, known to her former students during the late 80s and early 90s as Mrs. Andrea Word. She taught English and Speech at Copperas Cove High School from 1981 to 1990 before becoming a librarian until she retired in 2006. Padilla also taught at Central Texas College off and on from 1980 until her retirement. 

“I loved it, loved every minute,” Padilla said. “We used to have a heck of a lot more fun in school.”

Padilla shared that she and another former CCHS English teacher Jan Stalder used to run an organization called the Flat Earth Society, and they would put on a medieval themed banquet where students would have to learn manners from the medieval ages and how to conduct themselves, receiving a special name and title. 

“Copperas Cove was a different world back then, and we had a lot of fun to learn, and I never felt like learning should be a chore,” Padilla said. 

Padilla said she tries to come to the class reunions when she can, both for Copperas Cove alum as well as the reunions for the class of 1976 of the school she taught at prior to CCHS, which was Canyon High School in New Braunfels. 

“It was nice because when they got to be seniors, ‘91, ‘92, ’93, I had my students come through as library aides,” Padilla said. 

Padilla shared that she attended prom in 1991 as an adult chaperone with a student, Chris Kelly, documented in a wallet photo that she pulled out to show at the G&B Saloon. 

For Padilla, getting to interact with her students all these years later, at this reunion or at other reunions, is so interesting, especially with how many years have passed, she said. 

She shared that she has so many memories of teaching and of interacting with her students way back when and over the years.

“Being a teacher is a calling. It’s like being a minister or a nurse. I say a nurse because not a doctor,” Padilla said. “They’re not in it for the money. They do it because they have a servant’s heart.”

Padilla added that a teacher would never see the impact they made on their students in their paycheck. 

“My reward now is I will not leave a legacy of money, but my students are my living stones,” Padilla said. “They’re my living legacy, and it’s neat to run in the grocery store and say hi to one of them I haven’t seen in a long time that’s there with a little girl, and I heard the little girl asked her ‘Who was that, Mommy?’, and she goes, ‘She was my teacher.’”

Padilla added that sometimes the response is even better, like one student at the reunion who told her he just had to get a hug from his teacher at his high school reunion.