Dreams do come true if you are Peyton Mosley, who is one of a few seniors on the softball team. Her dream started to come true when she first stepped into the pitcher’s circle at Poly Wells field.
Mosley was a timid walk on, but a determined young woman.
Over the course of her four years garbed in the purple and white, Mosley did not disappoint.
Her freshman year consisted of coach Reeves immersing her into a game against Cameron University with the bases loaded. He did not exactly ease her into her first game, but Mosley responded by pitching seven innings, giving up only two runs and a season-high of seven strikeouts.
“Her sophomore season is when she really started to come around,” head coach Bobby Reeves said. “She had some big wins against West Texas and some other good teams””she has just continued to blossom each year.”
Mosley was named Lone Star Conference Pitcher of the Week twice, First Team All-Lone Star Conference and ranked third in the LSC with a 2.59 earned-run average. She finished the season with an 11-9 record striking out 63 over 119 innings pitched.
Her final two seasons have not been exactly what she hoped for, but she continued to work hard day-in and day-out, never believing she’d be throwing against Div. I opponents her senior year.
“I’m my hardest critic,” Mosley said. “I’ve had some really great games, I’ve had some not so great games””but that’s just kind of how the sport goes. I’ve had some growing pains, but I’ve had some success at the Div. I level and that’s all I could have ever asked for.”
Mosley said she believes she has been blessed with many opportunities since coming to ACU, but her dreams did not come true until she received an email over spring break from Disney World’s corporate office. The email notified her that she was accepted to the Disney College Program. The email started with a, “Congratulations,” and her mom could hear her scream from her upstairs bedroom in Coppell.
She got back to school from spring break and could not stop smiling.
“Peyton is usually a very serious person, especially on the field, but that day at practice she had a smile that reached from ear to ear. I had to ask her, ‘Peyton what’s up?’ She then said ‘I got my dream job at Disney World’,” Reeves said.
Peyton grew up watching The Little Mermaid nearly every day from when she was born to age three, immediately falling in love with Disney. She watched many others, but from an early age her favorite remained The Little Mermaid.
She entered The Magic Kingdom at a young age and does not remember a lot, but over those years her mom kept the scrapbooks and even received every single Disney character’s autograph.
Her most recent visit to The House the Mouse Built was after she graduated high school, and since then she’s been each summer with her family.
“Being there and actually being able to remember the past few times really took my love from the screen to the parks, so ever since then I’ve been addicted,” Mosley said.
Mosley grew up in a close family who did just about everything together. As a softball player, she does not get to go home often, but when the opportunity arises, she heads home to spend time with her family.
Heading to Disney World in September will be the furthest she’s been away from home for a long period of time. On receiving the job, her mom was excited.
“My mom is super excited and so is my dad, but me and my dad are really close so I think he was a little bit more upset than what he wanted me to believe,” Mosley said.
Her parents travel west to watch as many games as they can. Her mom sits on the front row with a scorebook in her lap between home plate and the third-base line, and her father sits a few rows above cheering her on.
Mosley, being so serious, does not seem like the girl as whimsical as Disney World, but Mosley shows a lighthearted side when walking through the parks.
“When I’m at Disney, it’s a whole other side of me. I laugh a lot more and smile the whole time,” Mosley said. “It’s just such a magical place, you can’t not be happy there,” Mosley said.
For Mosley, her dream of playing collegiate softball and walking down Main Street U.S.A. with Cinderella’s castle in plain sight is all she could’ve ever asked for.
