Fond memories of mother serve as inspiration to successful Lower Cape May Regional senior student-athlete

Posted: May 20th 2026

LCMR senior Ainsley Reed has overcome a family tragedy to become a major contributor to the Lower Cape May Regional High School community as a student, athlete and mentor.

By BRIAN CUNNIFF

CapeAtlanticLive.com

Ainsley’s Reed’s high school career is winding down.

The Lower Cape May Regional High School senior has been a standout in tennis, basketball and lacrosse, as well as one of the top students in her class academically.

Such accomplishments are difficult enough to ahieve. Reed, however, has done it without her mother, with whom she was extremely close.

Amy Reed passed away after a battle with breast cancer when Ainsley was just 11 years old. Despite that hardship, Ainsley has thrived as a student, an athlete and an active member of the Lower Cape May Regional High School community.

“It was definitely hard,” Ainsley said. “I learned to lean on the people around me. It wasn’t the first time she (battled breast cancer) so we kind of knew what it was about. I watched her fight all the way to the end.”

Ainsley has brought some of that same fight with her in every sport she’s played at Lower Cape May. In the fall, she was the first singles player on the tennis team. In the winter, she became the second-leading scorer and top three-point shooter on the basketball team. And now this spring, she entered Wednesday’s contest against Kingsway just one goal shy of 200 for her career.

All the while, she did it for mom.

“It’s all been for her – 100 percent,” Ainsley said. “And as I’ve gotten closer to this milestone, she’s always been in the back of my mind.”

Since her mother’s passing, Reed has been fortunate to live with her aunt and uncle, Joell and Travis Worster, who reside in Cape May. Joell is the director of special education in the Lower Cape May Regional School District.

“With her aunt being here, she’s been such a big, positive person for her,” Lower Cape May girls lacrosse coach JoAnn McLaughlin said.

Ainsley has poured herself into the community at Lower Cape May. In addition to playing three sports, she also volunteers as a mentor to middle-school children at the Richard M. Teitelman School and assists with the youth girls lacrosse program that practices after the high school team on the same field on Lower’s campus. She does this while also carrying a 4.69 grade-point average. She’s ranked among the top five students academically in the senior class.

“I always feel like I’ve had a place to go here,” Ainsley said. “It’s been a second home here for me. Having my teammates around me, maybe they didn’t always know how I’m feeling, but them just being there for me in every way possible has been great.”

Ainsley, and her older brother, Grant, learned a lot about sports from their mother, who excelled in tennis and basketball before graduating from Lower Cape May in 1989.

“I think about her a lot when I play sports because she was a big athlete,” Ainsley said. “What made her happiest was living sports again through us.”

Ainsley is set to play college lacrosse at Division III John Carroll University, located near Cleveland, Ohio. She plans to major in biology, with hopes to eventually become a pediatric dentist.

“Obviously being able to play lacrosse there is great but I also really like all the opportunities it can provide me, like with internships through my major,” Ainsley said.

McLaughlin will undoubtedly miss having Ainsley in the Caper Tiger girls lacrosse program after this season ends.

“She’s an amazing kid, on the field and off the field,” McLaughlin said. “She’s someone we can rely on all the time as a captain. She’s the kid who’s always staying after practice to work with the youth. She’s the kid all the teachers are texting me about, saying, ‘Ainsley did this and Ainsley did that.’”

Aside from the terrific intangibles, Ainsley has also developed into an outstanding lacrosse player.

“Her skill and her IQ are amazing,” McLaughlin said. “She’s the one you want having the ball on her stick. She’s such a great leader, always talking on the field and helping her teammates. She’s extremely humble and so she’s selfless. Achieving a milestone like (scoring 200 goals) and being as selfless as she is is just incredible.”

Ainsley’s four-year contribution to the Lower Cape May community is inspiring, McLaughlin said.

“She never used what happened to her mother as an excuse,” the coach said. “She just went out and did it. Really an amazing kid.”

Ainsley said she is proud to have been able to compete in three sports in all four of her high school years. She’ll graduate with 12 varsity letters.

“It’s great to know I could succeed in the sports I played,” she said. “It was definitely hard. But I would say the thing I liked the most was the camaraderie I got to make with my teammates. When you play at a smaller school like ours, you get to play sports with a lot of the same people. I’ll miss the people, the coaches and the environment after playing four years here.”

There’s no doubt the people around Lower Cape May Regional High School are going to miss Ainsley Reed as well.