Lacrosse
Favorite athlete: Chloe Humphrey
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Beating Pennridge and winning the SOL for the first time in my four years here
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: During sophomore year, the first practice of the season I slipped and faceplanted while the whole team watched and the entire team fell to the ground laughing
Music on playlist: Rhianna and house music
Future plans: Attend Drexel for engineering
Words to live by: “Live, laugh, breathe”
One goal before turning 30: Travel to Europe and own a beach house
One thing people don’t know about me: I have really small pinky toes
By Craig Ostroff
When the Central Bucks West girls’ lacrosse team defeated Council Rock North on May 7 to clinch the National Conference title, it marked the culmination of a path that was set long before the current season began.
In fact, it was set last spring.
After coming up just short in the SOL National Conference race and making a first-round exit in the District 1 3A playoffs last season, the Bucks made a vow then that the veteran team they would be returning in the 2026 season would not suffer the same fate.
“I honestly think since end of last year, we knew what the goal was,” said senior attacker Raylin Tulio. "We were all really sad about how our season ended last year. Nobody wanted it to end last year. We were really close with our senior girls last year and it ended really fast.
“Liv Barrett and I talked about it over summer, that this is it. This would be the season we accomplished our goals. In the offseason, we talked about our goals and said, ‘This is the year we’re going for it, no quitting early, this is it.’ The way the last season ended motivated us through summer, fall, winter, and once spring hit, we knew we had to put in the work and we were making it this year. We were all completely on same page with from the start.”
And it showed.
With a strong start through a brutal nonleague slate to open the season, the Bucks hit the league schedule at full speed. They dominated the National Conference and posted a perfect 10-0 league record to earn the school’s first conference title since they shared it with two other teams in 2019. Additionally, the Bucks claimed the seventh seed in the District 1 Class 3A playoffs, earned a first-round bye, and downed Pennridge for the second time this season in an 8-6 second-round victory.
Though the Bucks fell in the quarterfinals and lost their playback game to end the season, there was no denying that this season was simply magical.
“I could not be happier that my senior year is the year we’ve gone this far,” Tulio said. “We haven’t been in this position in a long time.
“I am so proud of our juniors and sophomores, they really wanted it as much as we did. My class has been working since we’ve been freshmen, and I’m so proud this year we got it together and are able to go this far.”
The Bucks couldn’t have had a better leader to look to than Tulio. The four-year varsity player might not be the type of attacker who fills up the scorebook, but her lacrosse IQ, effort, and willingness to do the things that tend to go unnoticed has helped make her an ideal captain for the younger players.
“Raylin does so much for the team on the field,” said West coach Elena Romesburg. “She’s not a big stat girl – she’s not the one scoring 4, 5 goals a game – but she’s feisty, she hustles, works hard, and always shows up. She’s really been a good role model for younger girls on team and they gravitate toward her.”
The key to Tulio’s success is knowing and accepting her role on the field. With other attackers and offensive midfielders who are counted on to pile up the goals, Tulio knows her role is to help set them up for success. While she gets her share of goals, Tulio can often be seen setting picks and making cuts that free up her fellow attackers. And when a shot goes wide or a rebound is up for grabs, Tulio is the one getting to the loose ball to maintain possession and give the team another chance.
“It takes time to recognize that it’s OK not to get those stats if that’s not what the team needs from you. When I was younger, ‘I want my 100 points. I want my 100 goals.’ I used to be hyper-fixated on going to goal,” Tulio said. “As I grew into my role, I understood that it’s OK not to get those scoring stats as long as you’re doing what you need to do to help the team.
“When you miss a shot, it’s the hustle that matters, it’s the effort you put forth to get that ground ball. That’s something I’ve always known about my role. I’m not the one getting 10 goals a game, but of all the things you can’t control in a game, you can always control your effort. A lot of my game is not necessarily being on the ball but setting up my teammates for success.
“It’s important to know your role. Everyone’s role is going to be different, but when everyone knows their role and you can bring that all together, that’s how you create those amazing teams with great bonds.”
As one of the captains on this year’s squad, that’s one of the most important lessons Tulio tries to instill in the younger players.
It doesn’t go unnoticed.
“Raylin knowing her role and understanding her role, and with her being a team captain as well, the rest of the girls look at her, and they see that even if she’s not a big goal scorer, she’s leading by example,” Romesburg said. “She’s really talented as a low crease attacker, which we needed. She’s made a huge impact. If we miss a shot, she’s the one coming up with the scrum ground ball in the middle.
“The girls being able to see her is so important and is part of reason we’ve had so much success. She knows what it takes to play a hard game and overcome adversity, she knows how to do hard things. She shows the younger girls what it takes. She’s a great culture kid – the program has had a very positive shift because of kids like Raylin. She’s a good, positive person, a positive leader, and she has been throughout her four years.”
•••
A big part of Tulio’s positivity comes from knowing what can be looked past and what is truly important.
Having a bad game or getting a bad grade will happen. But there’s always another game, another test, another chance to do better next time.
It’s the things you can’t get back that are most important.
Unfortunately, that’s a lesson that is often learned through tragedy.
Tulio has already dealt with more tragedy than anyone her age should have to endure. But she is quick to credit an amazing support system of family, friends, and teammates for helping her 
through.
Tulio was 7 years old when her mother, Kelly, passed away. Kelly had been born with cystic fibrosis and was not given a positive prognosis. But she thrived, married her husband Dominic Tulio, and despite being told she’d likely never have children, she had a son – also named Dominic – and eight years later, a daughter.
“She was definitely a fighter,” Tulio said of her mother. “She did what she wanted to do. She had cystic fibrosis and ran the Broad Street Run. She always propelled me forward.”
When Tulio was 5 years old, Kelly underwent a double lung transplant and eventually developed post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder, a cancer that develops as a result of immunosuppression.
“Honestly, I don’t really remember her not being healthy,” Tulio said “I have a couple memories of her not being healthy, but I think my brain blocked out the bad parts. All my memories with my mom are being outside running around, going to parks, riding bikes, all that fun stuff. I don’t remember all the bad stuff.”
So father and kids pulled together. But with an 8-year gap between the siblings, a high school freshman doesn’t necessarily hang out a lot with a second-grader sister. So Tulio leaned on her father. And they bonded – among other things – over lacrosse.
“I have to give all the credit to my dad,” Tulio said. “He did not put his head down at all, he really pushed through. He was amazing – he coached me in soccer and lacrosse, went to all my brother’s lacrosse games in high school. He made us dinner every night. We were always on the couch 
watching TV, having a lacrosse catch outside, going to the beach.
“He was the most involved father you will ever meet in your life. He knew everyone. All my friends loved him, they all saw him as a second dad. He would make me lobster benedict on a Wednesday morning.”
Tulio and her father moved to Buckingham, and as she and her brother grew older, the age barriers began to crumble.
“Once Dominic moved back from college, we got really close,” Tulio said. “We really bonded over COVID. We realized how much we’d been through together, and we quickly became each other’s first call every time anything went wrong. We went through so much together, we were able to move on and come together.”
Unfortunately, another unthinkable tragedy would strike in December 2024, when Tulio’s father suddenly passed away.
Once again, the siblings looked to their support system for guidance, and this time, her brother Dominic stepped to the fore.
“I could not be more grateful for my brother,” Tulio said. “Growing up, I hated the age gap between us, but now we talk about it all the time. He has a good job and he takes care of me. Dominic didn’t have to step up to the plate, he could have just been a 25-year-old and lived his life. But he took responsibility for me and I couldn’t be more grateful.”
Of course, the safety net stretches wide for the siblings.
“I have so many people to thank for stepping up,” Tulio said. “My grandparents - my dad was one of seven, and they’re all the most friendly people you could ever meet in in your life. We call all my parents’ friends ‘Aunt and Uncle,’ too.
“Our support system is gigantic. My grandparents are amazing, aunts and uncles and friends. I truly could not do it without my friends and my friends’ parents.”
Through it all, however, there remains one question. How can someone who has seen such tragedy at such a young age maintain such a positive attitude and outlook?
“I push through because I know it’s what they would want me to do,” Tulio said. “My dad refused to put his head down because he knew my mom wouldn’t want him to put his head down. My mom went through so much adversity in her life, and she never let that get in the way of things. I know in my heart that they’re proud of me, they continue to be proud of me, and I know they would be disappointed if I put my head down.
“It never really gets easier, you just kind of move on a little bit, but it changes your perspective. It’s going to affect me for the rest of my life, but there’s so much more left in me, so I can’t put my head down. They motivate me to go forward, because any second could be your last.
“If I’m having a hard day, if I don’t want to go to practice or school, something my mom would say was, ‘You can be sad each day, but you can’t be sad all day.’ I take that to heart. You can have 5 minutes, then it’s game time. You’ve got to get up and get rolling. That’s something that pushed me through, knowing what they would want for me and living for them.”
•••
Certainly, some days are more difficult than others. But as Tulio has found out, her teammates have been a critical part of her support system as well.
“I remember my first practice back was an offseason practice and I didn’t think I could get through it,” Tulio said of her junior season. “Lacrosse was our thing, me and my dad. He drove me to practice, home from practice. That was hard to play without him for the first time.
“My first practice back, I had a meltdown in the bathroom. I got in the car, Kalena (Mandeville), the senior goalie on last year’s team) was like, ‘Raylin, you know your dad would not want this, he’d want to you play.’ I rallied, went through the whole season, and I could not have needed it more. It was my escape for everything.”
Tulio threw herself into lacrosse.
“I said to Elena about a month into the season, I asked her after every practice, ‘Can you tell me something you want me to work on for the next day, the next week, for the season? It’s giving me something to focus on.’ It was my time to put everything away and it was something I could really put my attention on, and she did it for me every day after practice.
“It really helped me, had me focus my nervous energy in a positive way. And lacrosse gave me an
escape from reality for two hours every day. All the girls were so supportive. If I was having a down day, they’d write me a little note. I don’t think I needed anything more than I needed that, and the coaches and those girls gave me that and I’m so grateful.”
Still, Tulio had to accept that her junior season on the lacrosse field would be the first without her dad cheering her on from the sidelines.
“He came to everything, to the point it was almost annoying,” Tulio said with a laugh. “I had a concussion my sophomore year, I was out for 3 weeks, I couldn’t play, I didn’t dress, and he was still at every game, no matter what. ‘Dad, I’m not even stepping on the field. I’m doing stats.’ He’s like, ‘I’m coming.’
“So now I faced the new reality that the person I heard on the sideline yelling my name every game isn’t going to be there. It was not just a hole in my heart, but the whole team. I had people telling me, ‘This season was not the same without your dad yelling all his nicknames for the girls.’
“My teammates got me through every day, and they do this year, too. Katie Casale and her mom have picked me up over and over again, they make my day better or lighter, Katie or Mrs. Casale are my first call if I ever need anything. I have so many people I could call if I needed. Kalena is now at Syracuse, I still go to her house and hang out with her parents. And I can call her whenever I need.”
•••
With one of the most successful seasons in Central Bucks West history having officially come to a close, Tulio will carry all her memories with her as she turns to the future.
In less than a month, she will be a high school graduate. After originally committing to University of Pittsburgh, Tulio had a (quite literally) last-second change of heart and decided instead to stay closer to home and attend Drexel University, where she will study engineering.
“Drexel is an amazing engineering school, it’s world-renown in engineering, and it will set me up for a job straight out of school,” Tulio said. “And my support system is right here. I’m Philly born and raised. I don’t know how I would deal with having to cheer for the Steelers.
“But my brother’s right here, he wanted me to go to Drexel, too. I’m looking at mechanical engineering. With that, I could go biomedical or I could go more the structural route. With my mom and her medical side, my dad’s passing, biology was always interesting to me, and my brother is in pharmaceuticals. So maybe I can engineer heart monitors or something that could help someone like my dad. The inspiration comes from my parents.”
And while Tulio was never the biggest player on the field, there is no doubt that filling her shoes will be a monumental undertaking.
“It’s always hard to lose a four-year letterwinner, but Raylin is truly special because of all she’s had to deal with,” Romesburg said. “She’s had to overcome a lot in her personal life, but she never let that impact lacrosse and she never made excuses. It’s hard when things get bad and there’s always a tendency to make excuses, but Raylin has never once made an excuse with her situation or anything she was dealing with.
“Not a lot of kids can be as strong as her in dealing with something like that. And she’s always understood that hard work is going to get her places. We’re going to be losing big part of the culture when it comes to hard work and positivity.”
For Tulio’s part, she simply hopes the returning players will continue to preach the lessons and attitudes she’s tried to display not just as a senior captain, but throughout her four years at Central Bucks West.
“I want them to try to lead by example and to be the kind of teammate I always wanted everyone to be to me,” she said. “I want them to remember how I always tried to cheer them on and tried to hype them up, trying to bring the good vibes, and to not take it so seriously, not to get down on yourself, just move on to the next play and get it right the next time. Know when to lock it in, and when to not take it to heart. You do it all as a team, not as individuals. You play as a team, you lose as a team, you win as a team … and I want them to play for the girl next to them and not for themselves. That’s what I always tried to do for them.”
