Doctor's orders: Chloe Poulich gets late start at Towson to fulfill nursing degree requirements

An injury had nothing to do with Chloe Poulich missing a month’s worth of games and almost every practice in February for the Towson softball team.

Still, getting a doctor’s note would not have been a problem.

Poulich, a Mt. Pleasant graduate, spent February fulfilling her final 120 hours to complete her nursing degree. She did her clinical at nearby Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

“It was very crazy,” said Poulich, a senior third baseman who helped Mt. Pleasant to the 2017 PIAA Class 4A title. “I was working night shifts for the first time. All 12-hour shifts. I was basically working full time, trying to get my hours done on top of school and practicing when I could make it.”

Poulich, who has a job lined up at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, worked in the pediatrics wing. Since she ranks in the top three of her nursing class, she got to choose where to complete her clinical.

“I had a lot of kids with congenital heart issues, so caring for them was awesome to see,” she said. “I was working with some of the top heart surgeons and pediatricians in the country.

“I learned so much about how to take care of kids of all ages and communicate with them and their families and be with them in the hardest days and the best days, too, when they got to go home.”

After missing Towson’s first 12 games, Poulich made her season debut in a doubleheader March 4. She went a combined 0 for 7 with an RBI. Two days later, however, she hit her first homer of the season and scored two runs against Coppin State.

“My first weekend, I was very nervous,” said Poulich, a second-team All-Colonial Athletic Association selection last season after hitting .370 with a team-best 20 RBIs. “I was at the hospital until 8 the day before. I hadn’t been to the field to hit or take ground balls or anything. I didn’t know what to expect.

“Luckily I was able to come out and see the ball pretty well. From that point, I think I’ve gotten more and more comfortable and more confident.”

Poulich’s average is up to .273 this spring with two homers and nine RBIs entering the weekend for the Tigers (9-13). She was named CAA Player of the Week on March 21.

Towson coach Lisa Costello called Poulich “a freakishly good athlete” but said her biggest contributions don’t show up on the stat sheet.

“She’s a calming presence on the field,” Costello said. “She brings the team together. Everybody respects her. She never has to raise her voice for that to happen.

“It’s great when one of your best athletes is also one of the hardest workers and has the highest character on your team.”

Poulich got a sense of adulthood throughout February. Her job at Children’s starts June 26, so she has a short time to enjoy her final months of softball and college.

“I think the past year I’ve grown leaps and bounds, from being able to balance practice and nursing school,” she said. “I was basically working already. That taught me the ins and outs of what life is going to be like when I graduate and what it’s going to be like without softball. It’s definitely going to be weird.”