Wednesday, Nov. 13 was National Letter of Intent Signing Day for high school athletes around the country. Westside had four seniors sign with colleges. This is a continuation of the ongoing Wired series of features of these athletes. 

For Moriah Guyett, whether to play softball or not was never the question. The only question was where to go. And, after campus visits and talking to coaches, Guyett decided on Buena Vista University (BVU), a Division III school in Storm Lake, Iowa.

“When I called [the coach] to tell her that I’d made my decision to go to Buena Vista, she was like, ‘You have no idea how big of a smile I have on my face. I’m so excited,’” Guyett said.

For Guyett, the draws of the school range from the coaching style to the distance from home (not too close, but close enough that Guyett will be able to come home on weekends, according to Guyett).

“I like the coach because she’s very, I feel like, straight forward and very able to talk to,” Guyett said. “When I visited her one time she talked about she has two kids and her husband, and the kids come to the games and how the team has to be able to be censored around the kids and how they have to be nice to the kids and everything. Family is a big thing for me too, so that kind of drew me to her.”

Guyett found BVU through one of her summer softball teammates. The teammate will be joining Guyett at BVU next year.

“I heard [of it] from one of my summer softball teammates and she’s one of my good friends,” Guyett said. “She was talking about it and so that’s how we visited and that’s how I liked the campus and everything, and so what makes me really happy is she’s also going to Buena Vista. So I’ll have somebody who’s on the same team that I know.”

Guyett already has some experience with her other future teammates at BVU, as she met them on a campus visit.

“The second time I went there was a team bonding thing, so after I talked to the education teacher and then the coach I talked to one of the players,” Guyett said. “She was a pitcher too.”

After meeting a BVU pitcher, Guyett went to the team bonding event and joined some of the recruits and players already on the team to talk.

Guyett, who was a pitcher for the Westside softball team, will have a chance to earn playing time next year.

She talked to me [and] she was like, ‘I’m looking for pitchers who are not just able to play an inning a game, but actually pitch a whole game, and I think you’re ready to do that,’” Guyett said. “They’re only going to have one upperclassman [pitcher], and so she wanted two good freshman to come in and be able to come in and pitch and be able to pitch in games right away.”

Guyett is looking forward to the softball trips the team will take.

“I’m excited to be able to travel with the [team],” Guyett said. “I don’t remember exactly, but I think on spring break, I think it’s Florida that they were talking about [going to], but I don’t remember.”

Academically, Guyett will be focusing on education, a subject in which BVU has a good program.

The previous three athletes in this series were Jake Meyers, McKinney Harwood and Megan Peterson.