Alumni siblings featured on Forbes 30 under 30 list 2025
Page 6 Conestoga High School, Berwyn PA, 19312
Volume 74 No. 3
December 16, 2024
Why every teen should have a part-time job
Tryoneer Pioneer: Running the Philadelphia Marathon
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MAKING HISTORY
Field hockey wins state championship for first time
Lily Chen/The SPOKE
Emotional ending: The girls’ varsity field hockey team rushes toward senior, co-captain and midfielder Shae Wozniak after she scores the winning goal in the PIAA 3A State Championship. On Nov. 16, the girls won 2-1 against Villa Maria in an overtime period.
By Lauren Pinheiro, Abby Chong and Vaishnavi Sriadibhatla, Photography Editor and Co-Sports Editors The sound of the referee’s whistle rings loudly as overtime begins. With the timer counting down from 10 minutes, senior, co-captain and midfielder Shae Wozniak sprints down the field and receives
the ball from senior and midfielder Hannah Simon. Dribbling past three defenders, Wozniak takes a step into open space before flicking the ball toward the cage and past the keeper. The sound of the ball hitting the backboard echoes throughout the field as Wozniak falls to the ground. The stands erupt into cheers and the scoreboard flashes, marking the girls’ field hockey team as the winners of the PIAA 3A State Championships for the first time in Conestoga’s history. “I collapsed on the ground and immediately burst into tears
because I couldn’t even believe it happened,” Wozniak said. “I felt my teammates on the field first come around me. They were like, ‘We won, we won, we won. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh.’ I saw them sprinting out, and (they) just piled on top of me.” On Nov. 16, the team played in the state championship game for its first time since 1987, facing Villa Maria Academy High School. Shortly into the quarter, junior and forward Alivia first D’Ascanio scored a goal, securing an early lead for Conestoga and allowing the girls to focus on defense. Go-
ing into halftime, they maintained their 1-0 lead until Villa Maria battled back in the third quarter, tying the score 1-1. After neither team scored in the fourth quarter, the game went into overtime. “It was really high energy. It was only like a minute and a half of overtime,” sophomore and defender Lucy Salata said. “Once Shae got the ball and started carrying it down, we all knew that she was gonna do it. Some girls even took their coats off when she was carrying the ball to the goal.” Having been on the team for three years, senior, co-captain and
defender Phoebe Ridder said that the team’s work ethic and camaraderie were key to winning the championship this year. After the final goal from Wozniak, Ridder felt proud of the team and joined the other players on the field to celebrate with a group hug. “I just had such a rush of emotions — it was crazy. Everyone was crying. I almost don’t even know how to describe it, but you can see the pictures and in the video, so much love for each other,” Ridder said. “It was such a team effort. It wasn’t one player.”
Varsity head coach Regan Marscher has been a part of the Conestoga field hockey team since 2018, initially serving as an assistant coach before stepping into her current role in 2019. Marscher has watched the team improve and was glad that it faced Villa Maria in the state championship, as the girls previously lost to the school during the District 1 Championship game this year. “Winning the state championship has to be the best moment. The first one in our program’s history is incredible. We really fought super hard against a tough Villa
Maria team that we lost to in the district championship,” Marscher said. “To have that redemption was incredible.” Scan the QR code to watch an accompanying package
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Department of Education delays FAFSA rollout again Aren Framil
Co-Editor-in-Chief On Nov. 21, the U.S. Department of Education released the 2025-26 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) nearly two months later than the historical release date of Oct. 1 and 10 days earlier than its predicted 2024 rollout date of Dec. 1. Last year, major changes to the FAFSA’s formatting and financial aid formula resulted in an approximately three-month delay and widespread glitches. This year, the department beta-tested the form from October to November to prevent issues, slowly allowing select students to fill out the application before making it fully available on Nov. 18 and officially releasing it on Nov. 21. Guidance counselor Rachel Reavy helped students who experienced glitches with the 2024-25 FAFSA and said that this year, the department prepared in advance to manage any potential issues. “We’ve met as a department. Several of us have gone to different trainings to hear about the rollout and hear what’s new. We’re just really hoping that things are going to be as (the Department of Education) claim this year,” Reavy said. “We will be here to support everybody and help make phone calls and get in touch with colleges if we need to. It’s not ideal — because it’s your financial business, not ours, we can’t really ask a lot of questions. But we’re here
to help support your family through the process.” Last admission cycle, some schools pushed back their decision days — the deadline by which students have to
commit to a school — to accommodate the delays with financial packages caused by the late FAFSA release. Reavy hopes that this year’s delay will not cause similar issues.
“The delay in (the 2024-25 FAFSA) rolling out, and then the glitches that it had, meant that people didn’t get their financial packages from schools in a timely manner, which then
pushed back when people were making decisions,” Reavy said. “That became really stressful for a lot of families.” Senior Shruti Satheesh, who applied early decision before
the Nov. 21 rollout, said that the form releasing on Oct. 1 would have helped her make a more informed financial decision. “I feel like it’s just a disappointment,” Satheesh said. “I
Aren Framil/The SPOKE
Departmental delays: Senior Shruti Satheesh reads through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form timeline on the Federal Student Aid website. The Department of Education, which runs the FAFSA program, released the application on Nov. 21, nearly two months later than the historical release date of Oct. 1.
feel like it’ll (have) given me a closer direction, a clear direction of where I might be able to go based off tuition.” Senior Amber Bowden experienced some issues with information being updated across parent and student Federal Student Aid accounts but was able to successfully fill out the 2025-26 FAFSA form in early December. “Whenever my parents would file something, it would say that it wasn’t filed correctly, and they had to redo it to match mine. But sometimes it wouldn’t match, and it’ll be like, ‘Oh, it’s not matching, so you have to redo it.’ So we had to redo it a couple of times,” Bowden said. “It was very hard, very frustrating, because it was very long on the parents’ part.” This year, Reavy said she is not aware of any students having glitches with the FAFSA so far, though it may be too early to tell. “There haven’t been any issues that I have been made aware of yet. I feel like FAFSA rolled out earlier than they were estimating, which people were pleasantly surprised with, and I haven’t had anybody coming to me with glitches yet. That either means people haven’t submitted their FAFSA yet, or the glitches haven’t come to light yet,” Reavy said. “Hopefully the delay this year is to prevent that from happening. I’m hopeful that they’re accurate in that. I’m going to stay optimistic.”