![Senior Jett Mckinney stores all the clothes in his own room, with half of it stored in his closet along with his personal clothes, and the rest taking up space in his room.
“There’s been times [when] there’s so much clothing stored here and it gets overwhelming, so I end up having to sleep somewhere else in the house,” Mckinney said.](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/DSC_0951-1200x800.jpg)
![Broadcast, yearbook and newspaper combined for 66 Interscholastic League Press Conference awards this year. Yearbook won 43, newspaper won 14 and broadcast took home nine. “I think [the ILPC awards] are a great way to give the kids some acknowledgement for all of their hard work,” newspaper and yearbook adviser Paige Hert said. “They typically spend the year covering everyone else’s big moments, so it’s really cool for them to be celebrated so many times and in so many different ways.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/edited-ILPC.jpg)
![Looking down at his racket, junior Hasun Nguyen hits the green tennis ball. Hasun has played tennis since he was 9 years old, and he is on the varsity team. "I feel like it’s not really appreciated in America as much, but [tennis] is a really competitive and mentally challenging sport,” Nguyen said. “I’m really level-headed and can keep my cool during a match, and that helps me play a bit better under pressure.” Photo by Kyra Cox](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/hasun.jpg)
![Bringing her arm over her head and taking a quick breath, junior Lauren Lucas swims the final laps of the 500 freestyle at the regionals swimming competition on date. Lucas broke the school’s 18-year-old record for the 500 freestyle at regionals and again at state with a time of 4:58.63. “I’d had my eye on that 500 record since my freshman year, so I was really excited to see if I could get it at regionals or districts,” Lucas said. “ State is always a really fun experience and medaling for the first time was really great. It was a very very tight race, [so] I was a bit surprised [that I medaled]. [There were] a lot of fast girls at the meet in general, [and] it was like a dogfight back and forth, back and forth.” Photo by Kaydence Wilkinson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Kaydence-2.7-23-edit-2.jpg)
![As her hair blows in the wind, senior Brianna Grandow runs the varsity girls 5K at the cross country district meet last Thursday. Grandow finished fourth in the event and led the varsity girls to regionals with a third place placement as a team. “I’m very excited [to go to regionals],” Grandow said. “I’m excited to race in Corpus Christi, and we get to go to the beach, so that’s really awesome.” Photo by Addison Bruce](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/brianna.jpg)
Music, Animals, Endometriosis
Band Member Shares Her Trials, Tribulations
Photo courtesy of the CPHS Band SmugMug
Playing trumpet, junior Kaity Rhine plays with the rest of the band at an away football game against Conally. “I love playing my trumpet,” Rhine said.
November 26, 2018
Time management and dedication are two concepts that band member, junior Kaity Rhine is familiar with. Originally joining band to keep in touch with her elementary school crush, Rhine fell in love with it and has never left since. Apart from band, Rhine has been faced with a set of challenges throughout her life relating to her family, health and education.
“I started band in sixth grade because my crush at the time played an instrument and I thought I would be relatable or something,” Rhine said. “I decided to do [band] in high school because my cousin always told me how amazing it was. [He] definitely didn’t let down. We are like a big family, ups and downs all around. It’s a lot of work but at the end of the day it’s really rewarding.”
Prior to moving to Cedar Park at age seven, Rhine was born in Georgetown and grew up in Burnet, TX. Her mother decided to make the move to get Rhine and her younger brother out of a poor family situation.
“My dad made some pretty bad choices and he was putting other people’s lives at risk,” Rhine said. “[Moving] was pretty scary because I really didn’t know anyone. It was kind of like one day you’re living in Burnet and then the next day you’re living in Cedar Park with a bunch of people you don’t know and at the same time my mom was dealing with the health issues that I’m dealing with now.”
Both Rhine and her mother suffer from endometriosis, a genetic disorder only found in women, in which the cells from the uterus line the organs. Build up of these cells causes irritation in the organs, and leads to severe pain throughout the body, especially during menstruation.
“My mom got to stage three endometriosis and I don’t even know how she did it,” Rhine said. “She was in severe pain and prepping to get a hysterectomy. There were a lot of what ifs. She almost ended up dying, but she came out and she recovered well. We’ve been living just me, my mom and my brother since I was about eight.”
Rhine was diagnosed this past July with stage one endometriosis and said that she has been through a lot since then.
“They found my appendix covered in these cells and they had to take it out because they were afraid it was going to burst,” Rhine said. “It can just really mess with your body, but it is treatable. Eventually, I’m going to have to have a hysterectomy. Since my latest surgery, I’ve been feeling a lot better and we already have another surgery planned in four years.”
In between dealing with her health, Rhine has ways of destressing and enjoying her free time. She said that investing her time in exercise and school can help her distract herself.
“It’s something I have found has really helped me through this journey of figuring out what’s going on,” Rhine said. “When you don’t feel good, exercising kind of takes your mind away from that. I’ve also put myself into my school work and that has helped a lot.”
Rhine has also been working on her goal of becoming a veterinarian, and last summer she worked at a nearby vet clinic.
“I love working with animals because [they] are so important and people take for granted how much they are like us,” Rhine said. “10 out of 10 times when I was in an emergency situation at my clinic, where I’m having to help an animal whose life is in danger, the [animal] comes out of it and is so thankful. You can see it in their eyes and it is so cool and so rewarding. They are just all around amazing to work with.”
This summer, Rhine plans to intern at a zoo and hopes to go to Kansas State for their veterinarian program after she graduates.
![Holding a microphone, baseball booster club president Chris Cuevas announces the beginning of the annual cornhole tournament. The event has been held for the past two years and is designed to raise money for the baseball program in a fun way. “We’re a baseball team, so people love to compete,” Cuevas said. “So we figured we better do something that gets [their] attention. They want to compete. It’s not a hard sport to do, and we have all different [skill] levels [of participants].” Photo by Henry Mueller](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Henry-715-1200x900.jpg)
