Playing With A Purpose

THE COLLECTIVE IS not just a softball manifestation. Last summer, Cowles was part of a group that won the iGemer’s Prize, an honor selected by their peers in the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition in Boston.

Cowles had landed an internship at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View. Eleven students from Stanford, Brown, and Princeton were tasked with finding a way to produce drugs in space during longterm missions – to create an ‘astropharmacy.’ 

Under Ames senior research scientist Lynn Rothschild, they broke the problem into sub-projects: diagnostics, drug production and drug purification. Among Teaghan’s responsibilities was cell-free media synthesis. But again … the collective. No matter their specialty, each contributed to every part. 

The result was a project that attracted interest from Ames itself and private companies, and was accepted for a Phase I nine-month grant through the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program, rewarding ventures that “could enable and transform future missions.” 

“It’s really hard to get anything truly done in a lab in three months,” Cowles said. “But it was exciting to do it with other kids who are really passionate about the project.”

The astropharmacy fits into the logistics of NASA’s commitment to landing astronauts on the Moon through its Artemis program by 2024. If Artemis is well-established by 2028, attention can shift toward manned missions to Mars. The longer the voyage, the more vital the astropharmacy. 

Cowles feels fortunate that her bioengineering major gave her a glimpse into genetic engineering and other cutting-edge technologies. Next, she’ll build on that with a master’s program in biology. Medical school will come afterward. She hopes to become an emergency room doctor, fortifying that goal during 12-hour shadowing shifts in the Stanford Hospital emergency room. 

Science has been in her blood since she was a baby. Her father, Bobby Cowles, is a large-animal veterinarian and her mother is an emergency vet for small animals, and runs an area-wide blood bank for dogs and cats. 

“When you have two working parents, sometimes you just have to grab the kid and go,” Heidi said. “She got dragged along to everything -- blood, guts, mud. Whatever it was, she was always in the middle of it, and she loved it.”

Teaghan’s father treated leopards, cougars, sea otters. She watched him give a blood transfusion to an elephant and suture a zebra, being careful to match the stripes. 

Growing up, her interests were varied: space, science, medicine, technology, chemistry. And, of course, there was softball. 

“You don’t want to push them in any direction,” Heidi said. “At Stanford, we encourage her to do everything, take every class you can, spend every summer there you can, soak in every moment you can, because you never know what’s going to stick. You never know what you’re going to find to put those pieces together.” 

On a typical night, Cowles rides out the pandemic in a similar fashion to her routine at Stanford. In front of a computer, listening to music, watching a documentary about something like World War I munitions dumps, or catching the British comedy-drama series Fleabag. She toggles among three windows on her screen, each with at least 30 tabs, and does homework all the while. Books by Vonnegut or Camus are at the ready.

Dinner table conversations could be about stem cells or regenerative medicine, or comic books, or dark comedies. 

“The biggest thing is when we talk, you’re required to have an opinion and you’re required to have evidence to defend it,” Teaghan said. 

Bauer, a Stanford roommate, witnessed the dynamic when she accompanied Teaghan home after the campus shutdown.

“Oh my goodness, I love her family,” Bauer said. “They’re so intelligent, and every night after dinner, they would turn on Jeopardy. If one of them would answer incorrectly, they’d jump on each other. It was like a bloodsport. It was so terrifying.” 

“That’s a sacred hallowed time,” Heidi said. “And you’d better be on your game.”

TEAGHAN TRIED MANY sports – “I almost drowned in water polo” – but realized she had no interest in individual pursuits. Golf and tennis were out. She found team sports gave her a greater sense of purpose and motivation. At Columbia River High, she played soccer and basketball in addition to softball, and graduated in the top 5 percent of her class with an International Baccalaureate diploma.

“Teaghan was born pretty much the way she is now,” Heidi said. “She’s either zero or 100 mph, there’s nothing in between.”

Cowles especially stood out at catcher. She wore a chest protector with a Batman emblem – a nod to her comic book interests – stitched by her father to her surprise. Her softball opportunities were many, but Stanford was different. 

“Once a nerd, always a nerd,” Cowles said. “Stanford was always my dream school, just what it represented. As a kid, you latch on to certain ideas, before I even knew I wanted to play softball in college. I would have committed if I was just running bases for Stanford.”

The program was in a down cycle when she arrived, but Cowles gave it an immediate lift. In her first four games, Cowles had 11 hits in 16 at-bats. By the seventh game, she was batting leadoff. Her classmate, Montana Dixon, secured the catching job and Cowles was a player athletic enough to fill in any gap and was willing to do so. 

In Game 11, Stanford trailed 3-2 in the top of the seventh when Bethune-Cookman threatened to put the game away with runners on first and second. But Cowles threw two runners out at home from left field on the same play to end the threat. In the bottom of the inning, Cowles singled and scored the tying run and Stanford went on to win, 4-3, in eight innings. 

Cowles moved to third base shortly before Pac-12 play, filling a desperate need at a position which she had barely played, and stayed there for two years. She moved to the outfield permanently as a junior.   

“Our coaches would make jokes, like, ‘Teaghan, you’ve got to play third like a third baseman, not a catcher,’” Bauer said. “I was very confident she was going to make the play. I wasn’t very confident she was going to get it without a bruise. We’re like, ‘Teaghan, you’ve got to use your glove, not your body.’”

Her biggest contribution came on April 23 in Corvallis, Oregon, when Cowles roped a tiebreaking two-run eighth-inning triple to give Stanford an 8-6 victory over Oregon State and its first conference triumph in nearly two years. 

Jessica Allister, who took over as coach in 2018, was familiar with Cowles from pre-college travel ball tournaments, but may not have fully understood the influence Cowles would have with her teammates.

“She played at a different speed than everyone else,” Allister recalled. “She still does. She sets the standards of the team in the weight room, at our speed and conditioning sessions, and with our intensity and level of play at practice. 

“She personifies what you want your players to be like. When you’re working as hard as you can next to your teammates at practice, then practice becomes fun. Hard work becomes fun. That’s where you see improvement and that’s when you get good.”

When Cowles makes a diving catch in practice, everyone stops and cheers. Her teammates know how hard she works at a position that’s not natural, though her speed and arm strength make her a great fit for the outfield. Of course, her hitting always will be there. Already holder of the school record, she is one triple away from the Pac-12 career record of 22. 

“I always find the triples record as a very funny thing to hold,” Cowles said, tongue in cheek. “I think it truly stems from a general lack of awareness of when to stop at second.”

THOUGH COWLES WILL return for a fifth year next season, the big regret is that this improved Stanford team did not get to test itself in the toughest conference in the land or get a chance to advance further than its NCAA first-round regional exit last year. 

The frustration is understandable. Allister said it’s hard not to consider the what-ifs, but reminds herself of the bigger picture: “You see the economy and you see the workforce and you see the loss of lives. It would feel pretty small-minded to get too hung up on a softball season.”

Teaghan’s regrets are not centered on her team’s season necessarily, but rather are focused on the freshmen and the growth opportunities they missed by not facing the best teams. And, for Cowles, what about the opportunities for her growth too? To help her team win the biggest games, and provide wisdom and mentorship to those under the brightest lights. 

Maybe ‘regret’ is not the best term when referring to Cowles. That’s not the way she thinks. 

“Stanford has really lived up to the expectation,” Cowles said. “But I never knew the part I would love most about Stanford is the people.”

The toughest part of this uncertain time is being away from a roster full of best friends. 

“At Stanford, everyone creates a family in some respect -- among friends, among classmates,” Cowles said. “On our team, it’s a very real thing.”

Gone for now are the group movie nights, and five roommates she’s played with for four years. Teaghan’s superpower is allegiance. Her teammates know her so well – how she dissects the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle, a pencil in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. They know how she would do anything for anybody. 

In Ridgefield, Jeopardy is over and Teaghan is trying to decide whether to watch the British spy series Killing Eve or the feminist drama Mrs. America. She cuddles up to Yoyo and Frosty. The three stray cats – all saved from some calamity, whether hit by cars or rescued from a crackhouse -- wander in and out.  

“Usually, any animal that comes from a vet clinic and doesn’t have an owner, we’ll have one by the end of the day,” Teaghan joked … sort of. 

It’s different, but the same. Her parents, her brother, her dogs and cats. This is where Teaghan Cowles thrives. In the collective. 

“It’s always better with more,” her mother said. “It’s part of her personality. Involve as many people as you can. You can get more done, have more fun, do more, be more, see more.”

A softball game or an astropharmacy? It really doesn’t matter, in good times or bad. 

Unity. Purpose. Excellence.

For Teaghan Cowles, the goals remain the same.