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The Halftime Report: Paula Pieper - Family, Faith, Hard Work, and the Pursuit of Excellence

by Joe Cummings, Student Enrollment Officer & Head Boy's Varsity Lacrosse Coach
What does it mean to be a Cavalier? Are there distinct qualities and descriptions unique to Cavaliers? How does one grow to embody those characteristics? Can it be learned? Shared? Developed?

The school’s mission statement says, “A CCES education prepares students to think deeply, act responsibly, live vigorously, believe faithfully, lead resolutely, and create imaginatively.”  Deep. Responsible. Vigorous. Faithful. Leader. Resolute. Imaginative.

For Christ Church Episcopal School (CCES), Paula Pieper is the epitome of a Cavalier.  

For Paula, the vision to pursue the qualities that embody a Cavalier came after years of watching and learning from her parents, siblings, and their respective teams.  Through her vision, hard work, dedication, mindset, and support from her family, teachers, coaches, and friends, Paula has become one of the most decorated student-athletes in the history of CCES athletics.  

The Piepers

Dirk and Katherine Pieper have been involved at CCES with their kids for close to two decades.  They have four children, Dirk Jr. ‘11, Anna ‘13, Meg ‘16, and Paula ‘18 who have all attended CCES.  Dirk, a Washington and Lee University (W&L) alum from Baltimore, MD, and Katherine, a University of North Carolina (UNC) graduate from Winston-Salem, NC, raised their family right here in Greenville.  When the time came to think about education for their kids, the Piepers faithfully decided to engage CCES.

Dirk and Katherine expressed how fortunate they’ve been as a family to build relationships in the CCES community.  From Dirk Jr. to Paula, the Piepers are grateful for the value CCES has brought to their children and family. Dirk says, “we decided, if we’re going to invest in anything, the number one thing we’re going to invest in is our family and our kids, and we made the decision to invest in Christ Church.  I don’t think we could be happier about the return on our investment.” Katherine adds, “I think the school spirit here is incredible, and our entire family has enjoyed CCES.”

Over the last decade, there has been at least one Pieper competing in Cavalier Athletics.  Dirk Jr., Anna, and Meg were each tremendously successful Cavaliers, with all three participating in multiple sports and collecting great honors, championships, and personal awards during their time at CCES.  Dirk Jr., a 2016 graduate of Furman University and now a Process Engineer in North Carolina, was an All-State tennis and soccer player, member of the football team, and co-captain of the 2011 boy’s soccer team during his senior year when the program tied a national record for winning their 11th straight state championship under former coach, David Wilcox.  

Anna, a 2017 Clemson graduate who is studying to become a Physician’s Assistant at MUSC in Charleston, won tennis championships in 2009, 2010, and 2011 while also competing for the girl’s basketball team.  In addition, Anna competed on the first girls lacrosse team under current head coach and athletic director, Molly Miller. Meg, a sophomore at UNC, was an All-State lacrosse player who led the state of South Carolina in assists in 2015, and she was a member of the cheer team during the football team’s championships in 2012, 2013, and 2014.  

Faith

The Piepers are very involved in their church, St. George Greek Orthodox Cathedral, and according to her parents, Paula has really grown through her experiences at St. George.  Specifically, Paula is president of the youth group and has been involved with Greek Dance for fifteen years. She has also traveled on a Mission Trip to Ecuador with CCES along with several camp and service experiences with YoungLife, a non-profit Christian organization located in Greenville.  

This summer, before she heads off to college, Paula will put her faith into action by attending Ionian Village, a summer camp program in Bartholomeio,Greece, where students travel across Greece and visit significant religious sites over the span of twenty days.

Vision

Paula, a thirteen-year CCES veteran who started her career in Primer (Kindergarten), credits her success and love of sports from all the games and competitions she attended in support of her brother and sisters.

Growing up, Paula describes how she dedicated herself to constant improvement and was willing to try just about anything. A three-sport athlete in tennis, basketball, and soccer, Paula notes that she tried many sports before high school.  Paula kept an open-minded approach to each of these various athletic endeavors and defined her success through her effort and willingness to try new things. Paula states, “in the summers I would swim, do golf camps, and I tried lacrosse for a little bit, but it was always mainly tennis, basketball, and soccer.  Those were the three that I liked most.”

Paula adds, “in 2008 and 2009, when Varsity Girls Basketball won back to back state championships, I was there for that.  I said, ‘that’s going to be me someday.’ Same thing with soccer, the girls and the boys played back to back and I knew I wanted to be there someday.  The same thing with Anna, she played tennis, and so growing up, seeing it, I knew that’s what I wanted to do.”

Paula’s youthful ambition of being a leader on teams that compete for championships has come to fruition in her time as a student-athlete.  Head Soccer coach, James Greco shares high praise for Paula and says, “Pieper is the kind of athlete that comes along every once in a while.  Gifted with pure athletic talent and a clutch mentality, she always finds herself in the right spot during a close game. She has secured numerous games for us with her right foot, and has proven to be a leader on the team.  She is a fun teammate, has a great sense of humor, and knows how to keep all the girls loose.”

Favorite Memory

Paula’s favorite memory in her stellar career came during the basketball team’s run to the 2016 state championship.  Paula says, “sophomore year, when we played in the state championship, I was a shooter, and there were two shooters, Darcy Merline and me.  The day before state she hurt her ankle. In prior games, either I was shooting well or she was shooting well, so we always relied on each other if one wasn’t playing well.”  Paula continues, “because she hurt her foot, I knew going into the game it was going to be on me to be in the corner and make three-pointers. At practice the night before the championship game, Shayla Bennett said, ‘We’re going to make fifty three’s before we go.’”  

Paula couldn’t believe what she heard, for her arms were already sore coming off a shooting practice.  Nonetheless, she was all in and refused to leave the gym until she made her shots. Paula says, “the next day [in the championship game], I came off the bench because I wasn’t a starter.  I had literally just run in from half court and was open, so I shot it and made it. Coach Leopard was going crazy, and I hit three more [three-point shots] in the half. Coach told me after the game, ‘the other team scouted us and didn’t know you could do that; you really helped us win that game.’  I learned that putting in the work always gets it back.”

Mindset

Paula’s favorite memory is also connected to one of her greatest challenges.  When Paula was in 8th grade and heading into her freshman year, she was excited about the opportunity of becoming the starting point guard.  That same year, Christ Church had a student transfer who had all the makings of becoming a starting point guard and was being recruited by high caliber Division I programs.  Her name?  Shayla Bennett.

As disappointed as Paula was to lose out on the starting role for her freshman and sophomore years, she did not let it stop her from getting better.  Paula recalls, “it was really tough because I lost some confidence because Shayla was way better than me. Failing for the first time made me want to get better and never have that feeling of not being good enough again.”

Paula realized that one of the best point guards in the country was practicing right next to her, and she could use this as an opportunity to learn from Bennett to improve her own game.  Paula began studying how Bennett moved and saw the floor. Paula admired Bennett’s tireless work ethic, and she stayed after practice everyday to work with Shayla to improve her game.

Shayla Bennett, the 2015 South Carolina Class A Player of the Year, has since gone on to play for the top ranked Junior College basketball team, Gulf Coast State College, for the past two years, and she will be attending UNC in the fall as a junior guard on the women’s basketball team.  In her junior year at CCES, after Shayla Bennett’s graduation, Paula earned that starting spot and took on a critical leadership role as the team’s new starting point guard. The team reloaded and was once again competing for the state championship in 2017.

Regardless of the circumstances and challenges, Paula works tirelessly on her craft in the pursuit of mastery.  Whether it has been basketball, soccer, or tennis, Paula commits herself to the process and has always been willing to go the extra mile in an effort to improve.  Basketball Head Coach, Ja’Net Vicks, says Paula is “one of the most hard working players both on and off the court I've had the privilege to coach.  She is always driven to learn and get better at every opportunity.”

All sports present athletes with opportunities to overcome adversity in the pursuit of accomplishing goals.  Paula is unwavering and refuses to let failure keep her from working hard and improving in the classroom and on the playing field.  Paula describes her definition of growth mindset and says, “learning through failing and being able to learn through your failures; not giving up after you’ve failed.”  She adds, “growth mindset is believing that we are in a continuous process of improvement and that improvement comes from putting in work and time. It is characterized by persistence and will.”

Goals Accomplished

The outcome of Paula’s hard work, vision, mindset, and persistence? This is just a snap shot, but Paula’s accomplishments and resume are outstanding.  The list includes:
 
- National Merit Scholar Finalist
- High Honor Roll 9th, 11th; Honor Roll 10th (note: she is expecting more honors soon!)
- Earned a perfect score of 36 on her ACT
- 15 Varsity Letters
- Played in 8 consecutive State Championship games and 11 total State Championship games
- 5 State Championship teams (3 Tennis, 2 Basketball)
- Scored 1,005 points during her basketball career
- Varsity Basketball State Champion 2015, 2016
- Varsity Tennis State Champion Teams 2014, 2017, 2018
- 2018 High School Sports Report All-State Basketball Team
- 2017, 2018 All Region Basketball.  2017 All Region Soccer.
- Personal Tennis Record of 76 wins and 3 losses
- Co-Captain (Tennis, Basketball, Soccer)
- 12th Grade Student Body Secretary; 11th Grade Student Council Class Secretary
- Homecoming Court 10th, 11th, 12th grade
- National Spanish Honor Society 9th-12th

Humble about her success, Paula seems to always award credit to others.  She says, “it’s also my parents helping me start everything when I was younger, so I could develop skills.  They were always willing to take me to tennis and quickly drive me over to basketball and bring me food in the car and things like that.  They were super helpful with that.”

With all that she was involved with, Paula disciplined herself to master time-management.  She notes, “knowing I have such a short time in high school, I think why not maximize it. Especially with Netflix and Social Media, it’s so easy to waste time; we have so much more time than we really think.  I was always good about getting my homework done in school or doing it in the car and taking advantage of time instead of wasting it. We can honestly fit so much more in than we think.”

Future

In her final month at CCES, Paula is hoping to add one more championship to her resume with the soccer team while also enjoying her final days as a senior. Upon graduation from CCES, Paula plans to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the fall of 2018 and play basketball. She's not sure what’s in store for the future beyond her undergraduate studies, but she is ecstatic about her opportunity at MIT.  Paula’s vision five years after college, “hopefully, I’ve had a successful basketball career, as a student-athlete. I want to major in chemical or biological engineering and then become fluent in Spanish and then live in a couple different places right after college.”

Although she will be leaving campus, Paula will always be a Cavalier and will take the mindset she has cultivated at CCES to all her future endeavors. Her closing thought during her interview for this piece was simple yet revealing about her humility and character, “I think a lot of my success here has been being on the right teams and being in such a competitive environment, I think it speaks to the programs.”  I think we can all agree, Paula Pieper is prepared and has great things in store for her.

To the entire Pieper family, specifically Dirk and Katherine, thank you for being wonderful members of the CCES Community. We are grateful for your continued support and involvement in the lives of CCES students and athletes… “Lady Cavs Rock!”

Paula, on behalf of your teachers, coaches, classmates, current and future Cavaliers, thank you for the legacy you’re leaving behind, and all you have taught CCES through your leadership, example, and positive contributions to the school. We look forward to seeing what your future holds… Go Cavs!  
 
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  • Nayan survey
    Nice post. I was checking constantly this weblog and I’m impressed!
    • Paula Pieper, Class of 2018

    • The Pieper family in Fall 2010 after a varsity football game at Carson Stadium when Dirk, Jr was a senior

    • Paula shooting in the Upper State championship game this year at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena

    • Paula dribbling in the upper state championship game this year in the Bon Secours Wellness Arena

    • Paula kicks the ball straight on

    • Paula with her sisters Anna and Meg during their spring sports season

    • The victorious 2016 state championship team in Colonial Life Arena

    • Varsity tennis when they won the state championship in November 2017

    • Paula and Shayla Bennett with the State Basketball trophy in 2016 at the Colonial Life Arena in Columbia after they won the state championship game

    • Varsity Soccer after the victory which clinched the region for the girls this year

Christ Church Episcopal School (“CCES”) admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at CCES. CCES does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, national or ethnic origin, creed, religion, or sexual orientation in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, financial aid, scholarship or other programs, or athletic or other school-administered programs and activities.