Sammy Moss working hard on and off the field

PAIGE BECK Guest Writer

Sammy Moss finds fourleaf clovers wherever she goes. She looks for them in the outfield, by the batting cages and when she is walking around. “I just look down and see one,” Moss said. It all started with her great-grandma who would also find four-leaf clovers before she passed away. Moss claims that she got this lucky gift from her. However, it isn’t luck that gave Moss her starting spot as a right fielder on the University of Northern Iowa’s softball team.

When Moss was a freshman in 2020, she knew that she was going to have to work hard to earn her starting position. Every year has been a competition to prove to her coaches that she deserves to be playing on the field. New athletes come in every season, and it takes a lot of dedication to be able to play.

“One of my biggest accomplishments that I have achieved through soft - ball is winning a spot on the field and being a starter every year,” Moss said.

Moss has been playing softball for 13 years. She started her athletic career in her hometown of Mount Vernon, Iowa. Moss has lived there all her life with her parents and two younger siblings.

“My mom played college softball (at Mount Mercy) and was a coach, so she influenced my decision in playing softball,” Moss said. Moss started playing T-Ball when she was nine and fell in love with the sport just like her mom did. Today she is a college athlete as a redshirt junior, meaning she will get to play for five years instead of four because of COVID-19.

It’s not just the sport itself that she loves though. Softball has given Moss once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and life lessons that she said she will cherish forever.

Every year the softball team goes on a two-week trip to play against other schools. One of Moss’ favorite memories is going down to the University of Arizona during her freshman year. She said she loved experiencing the feeling of playing at a big school in a stadium underneath all the lights.

In her sophomore year, right before Moss was supposed to leave for Alabama, she broke her nose during practice and had to have surgery. She was playing center field when her teammate threw a ball at her and hit her in the nose. She had a cast on it for two days and got it off before the team left. She was still able to go down to Alabama, but she lost her starting position.

“It was difficult for me to overcome trying to fight back and put in all of the hard work to earn my spot back,” Moss said. However, she eventually recovered and earned her spot back.

Being a student-athlete has its challenges because time management plays an important role in classes, practice and games. The team is expected to have all of their classes done before 1 p.m. when they are in season every spring.

Moss explained that the professors are understanding and flexible with student-athletes because they know that they have to balance school and their sport. Moss said she enjoys the structure that softball has given her when she is planning out her classes and workout times because it helps her manage her time more efficiently.

One thing that the team teaches the athletes is that school and family come before anything else. The family team atmosphere is what holds the team accountable so that they not only achieve their goals on the field but also achieve their academic and career goals. Their motto is four for 40, which means, “These four years of college are what lead to the next 40 years of your life,” Moss said.

After Moss graduates, she would like to become a Physical Education teacher and also teach students how to lift weights. Along with teaching, Moss wants to continue her softball career by becoming a coach for the sport. She hopes to inspire young athletes and to continue to teach them what UNI has taught her. “Coaching is not just about the sport, but it is also about teaching the athlete life skills that they can use their whole lives,” Moss said.