Caroline Pusey-Athlete Spotlight
SALISBURY, Md. – In four years as an athlete, Caroline Pusey had two major knee surgeries that could potentially derail her dreams, and when most would’ve given up, she powered through and is now beginning to see the fruits of her labor.
The Parkside grad is now a starter on Louisville’s field hockey team, but her journey to the Division 1 level is filled with peaks and valleys. She was first team all-state and all bayside, plus she was a part of two bayside championship teams and a regional title team.
Her freshman year, she tore her left ACL playing basketball, and her senior year she tore her ACL in her right knee playing field hockey.
“Mentally, it was extremely tough. It’s probably the toughest adversity mentally I’ve ever had to go through. But the second time around, I was really nervous because I was already committed to going to the University of Louisville for field hockey. So I was really scared to tell my coach to see if that was going to change or hinder anything in my future, but luckily enough, it didn’t.”
She says her ACL tears prepared her mentally to be ready for the next level.
“It was hard because I know a lot of people haven’t gone through injuries and when you get there everyone is just fighting for their spot fighting for their starting spot and I had to push myself a lot harder and dig down deep to find where I could like actually get to where I could be as a field hockey player.”
Her hard work has paid off. She’s been a part of a team that’s won the ACC regular season title and made back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances.
Freshman year she red-shirted, sophomore year she got playing time off the bench, and now for her junior year, she’s starting.
“If you want it bad enough you can work hard enough to chase your dreams and become the athlete you want to be.”