Field Hockey
Favorite athlete: I don’t have one. I know, I really should!
Favorite team: Definitely the Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: I don’t think I could pick one specific moment as my favorite memory. One of the best things about playing field hockey at Tennent has been the girls on the team. All of the memories I’ve shared with my teammates have been amazing. These girls are my closest friends, and I wouldn’t trade playing with them for anything.
Music on iPod: To chill out, I listen to country. If I’m studying, I always put on Bach or Mozart. One of the most important playlists on my iPod is my pump-up and workout music. I make sure I listen to it before a game to get in the zone.
Future plans: In college, I plan to study international politics and government, as well as peace and conflict resolution studies. After I graduate, I hope to go into the Peace Corps. My dream job would be working with the United Nations to build relationships between third-world countries and more developed nations.
Words to live by: I have a set of lyrics that I love to remember:
I came to win, to fight, to conquer, to thrive
I came to win, to survive, to prosper, to rise,
To fly.
One goal before turning 30: I hope to join the Peace Corps and travel as much as possible
One thing people don’t know about me: Other than my teammates and closest friends, not many people know I want to move to Africa when I’m older. I want to experience life without electricity, cell phones and social standings as we know them in America.
Allie Reid lives with the goal of one day traveling to Africa with the Peace Corp, and that’s just the first step for the William Tennent senior, who dreams of one day working with the United Nations
It’s a dream that was nurtured through Reid’s involvement in service through her church and community.
According to Reid, that commitment to service took root during a service trip to Washington, DC, with her church the summer before her freshman year.
“We were staying in a hostel, and the morning we were leaving we were making breakfast for ourselves – bacon, sausage, pancakes, everything,” Reid recalls. “We were cooking, and you could hear the homeless people down below just talking.
“We decided instead of eating upstairs in our little apartment – we went downstairs, and we ate breakfast with all the homeless people.
“We offered them our food, and we sat in community right next to them and heard their life stories. That was really one of the turning points that made me realize how much we are alike and how much we are so different economically and socially. That’s really pushed me to want to do more.”
Reid has a lengthy resume of service activities, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg for a student-athlete who really might have found a way to do it all.
And do it all extremely well.
The Tennent senior is a co-captain of her field hockey squad. She also is an editor of the yearbook, a member of the Key Club and is involved in student government. A member of Tennent’s athletic council, Reid is the co-captain of the school’s Black and White Night, a three-day school-wide competition.
She still finds time to excel in the classroom where she boasts a weighted GPA of 5.4 (unweighted 4.0). She is ranked seventh out of a senior class of 186.
“I just try to take advantage of every single opportunity,” Reid said. “I take on as much as I can just to make the most of this experience and gain from every opportunity that is presented to me. I try and work hard and make sure it is worthwhile.”
Coach Kaitlyn Rauchut admits she is amazed by Reid’s ability to juggle her schedule and excel both on and off the field.
“I don’t know how she finds the hours in the day,” the Panthers’ coach said. “She does it all day in and day out, and she’s a very positive person.”
For Rauchut, who took over the helm during the second week of preseason, having a player like Reid on board helped make the transition to head coach a smooth one.
“As a player, the best asset she has is her positivity, and her work ethic is second to none,” the first-year coach said. “The girls voted, and they chose her as a captain. It wasn’t that fact that the coaches chose captains. I think that speaks of the person she is. I truly believe just being around her you become a better person and have a better outlook on life.”
As the Panthers’ center midfielder, Reid is a key part of her team’s offense and defense.
“We have a very young team, but as our center mid, she really knows how to make her presence felt on the field – not by being a loud player but by her technique, her control, her poise and most of all just never giving up,” Rauchut said.
Rauchut first met Reid when she was a sophomore on the jayvee. Last year, Reid was a swing player, and this year she has established herself as a force in the middle of the field.
“Allie came in as a good player, but this is the first year that I saw her take it to another level,” Rauchut said. “We have so many other standout players that people might take notice of, and sometimes they forget about the other players, but a couple of the coaches have said, ‘Who’s your center mid?’ because she’s very good at what she does.
“If she wanted to, she could go and play in college.”
Reid admits she had some concerns when former coach Kate Wyatt was forced to step down because of job responsibilities.
“Initially, it was a shock, and we were like, ‘What are we going to do?’” the senior captain said. “But then we realized what great coaches we have and how involved they were with us, and we went right into it.”
Things have worked out just fine for a young Panther squad that opened its season with four straight wins and is 5-1-1 after seven games.
“It was really surprising to some of us because we lost a lot of great seniors from last year and just realizing the potential we have and that we can do it just helps us so much mentally,” Reid said. “We’re like the underdog almost.”
It’s a role the Panthers enjoy, just as Reid is enjoying her role as leader of the inexperienced squad.
“We have a really young team, and in a way, that has brought us together,” she said. “In previous years, it’s always been upperclassmen are varsity, but this year it’s really been – it doesn’t matter what grade level you’re in, if you’re that type of player, you’re varsity. If you’re not, work toward it.
“Our team is so diverse. We have freshmen playing with seniors. We don’t practice separately. Everyone is incorporated. There’s no line between varsity and jayvee.”
Reid got her first taste of field hockey when she joined the team at Klinger Middle School. She also competed in soccer, track and swimming and actually dove for one year in high school and also played soccer for a year, but it was hockey that stuck.
“I think I was attracted to it initially because my sister played it when she was in middle school,” she said. “It’s a lot like soccer, and I had a knack for it. I just loved doing it, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Reid’s passion for hockey has not kept her from being involved in countless other activities. She even manages to find time for an after-school extracurricular like yearbook.
“It fits in nicely with field hockey because it’s an hour club after school until 3:30, and we start practice at 3:30,” Reid said. “The coaches and I are in agreement that yearbook is equally important to field hockey and my academics are equally important, so they’re willing to sacrifice 15 minutes for me to get ready and down to the hockey field once a week.
“We have a great team of editors, so we get to share the responsibilities, so that definitely helps a lot.”
In the classroom, Reid is enrolled in AP Spanish, AP Literature and Composition, AP US History and AP Government as well as an honors calculus class and a sociology/psychology course.
“It’s a lot of work to do, and it’s actually really difficult right now,” said Reid, who took two AP classes as a junior. “I’ll come home from practice at 5:30, and I’ll work on homework until midnight. That’s how my days are basically.”
For good measure, Reid – who has given more than 500 hours of community service – volunteers at numerous school and community events.
Every summer since she’s been in high school, Reid has gone on a service trip with her church. In order to go on that trip, the young people are encouraged to do local community service beforehand, so twice a month, Reid spends her Saturday mornings volunteering at a horse farm.
“They have us cleaning stalls, moving pens,” she said. “It’s definitely dirty work. We get down and get right in there.”
Those experiences have prepared Reid for service projects that have taken her to New Orleans for a week, and she’s also been on service trips to Manassas, Virginia, as well as Montgomery, West Virginia. Next summer, she will be going to Rochester, New York.
“We usually go to low income areas where the people are living below the poverty level,” Reid said. “It’s definitely made me humble, and it’s brought to light how fortunate I am and how unfortunate places are right next door to me, even in Philadelphia in our backyard.
“It’s actually inspired me and made me want to major in international politics and relations with a minor in peace and conflict resolution studies so I can help communities like the communities I have worked in to help their everyday circumstances. The trips have definitely shaped where I am today and what I want to do with my life.”
Reid has 10 schools on her potential college list. She recently visited Georgetown University and George Washington University in the Washington, D.C., area. She is also looking at schools like Princeton and Bucknell.
“I have some rural school, and I have some city schools,” Reid said. I range all over.”
Wherever she goes next year, it undoubtedly will be just the first step in what Reid hopes will be a life of service helping others.
