Everyone loves a good underdog story.
Deryn Moye knows the trope as well as anyone. She lived it.
In high school, Moye was a successful athlete. She participated in track and field and lettered three times in basketball, winning a 4A Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League basketball championship with Blackhawk High School along the way.
Moye fell in love with the grind of basketball, but she was not sure where athletics would take her in the future. That is when she decided on Slippery Rock University and, not too long after, decided to give Rock basketball a shot.
Collegiate sports, though, were not a concrete part of the plan. Moye came to the school for several reasons, from wanting to enroll as a health and physical education student to her sister also having decided on Slippery Rock.
The first step
Without a guaranteed roster spot, Moye had to make a name for herself within the program. She understood the challenge of breaking onto the roster and the hill she had to climb to gain playing time.
“It was definitely a jump from high school,” Moye said.
Moye started out at The Rock as a practice player. She was not initially sure if she would end up getting in-game playing time, or if that was even what she wanted, but the junior was not going to allow luck into the equation.
“I came to all the practices and all the games,” Moye said.
Head Coach Ryenn Micaletti took notice and used the opportunity to let Moye showcase her play as well as her intangibles.
“I think she used the first couple weeks of preseason as a judge to see if she wanted me to stay as a practice player or be on the team,” Moye said.
It was not just the talent Micaletti noticed though. On top of proving she can perform at the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) level, Moye was doing all the little things right.
“She honestly makes coaching easy because you know you’re going to get 110%,” Micaletti said. “You know that any time you address her, whether that’s over strategy or to just maybe make an adjustment or something like that, she looks at you, with eye contact, shakes her head and is like, ‘alright coach, yes coach, got it.’”
Big sister, little sister
Confidence and team unity are key factors to both individual and team success across all sports. The Rock women’s basketball team has a system in place to make sure everyone is being accounted for and cared for.
“An upperclassman is with an underclassman, and every week we are supposed to have one workout with each other outside of practice,” Moye said. “The big sister is supposed to check up on the little sister to see how she’s doing mentally and physically.”
Along with creating a culture of accountability to your teammates, this system gives the athletes an outlet to get anything off their chest or their mind so they can stay healthy mentally and physically in order to put their best foot forward on the court.
“You can talk about anything with them, you can work out with them, share your goals with them,” Moye said.
It does not stop there. From top to bottom, the entire program strives to always be welcoming to one another, including the coaches.
“You can go to [coach] with anything. Coach Ryenn always says she has an open door for anything,” Moye said. “It’s about making sure as a team you’re okay… just to let people know they have someone there for them.”
These systems of positive reinforcement built within The Rock women’s basketball program helped foster the confidence Moye needed to reach her potential as a player.
Setting goals
“I liked the hard work part. I like to have something to reach for,” Moye said.
The path she took to college playing time, while not easy by any means, does have a few different checkpoints to look for along the way. She had already shown that she has the talent to compete at this level of basketball and that she possesses the intangibles. What was left was to prove it to herself and everyone that she can do it in a game setting.
It did not take too long for teammates to notice.
“I shot a couple threes, and I made them, and my friend Alyssa [Gillin] was like. ‘You look surprised that you made that,’” Moye said. “They have so much confidence in me that it makes me really happy to be around them.”
Knowing she had the whole program’s confidence building behind her, it helped Moye flip a switch that sometimes flickered during her high school playing days.
“Gaining more confidence helps me not really focus on the mistakes. In high school I would focus on the mistakes, and I would take myself out of the game,” Moye said. “Coming to college, coach Ryenn and the girls having confidence in me allowed me to focus more on the next play mentality rather than, ‘Oh, I just messed up here, I have to make a good play to fix it.’ But it’s not that. It’s just next play. Just keep working.”
Moye recalls two games in particular, one against Indiana University (Pa.) and one against Seton Hill University, when she could not just feel the energy behind her. Her teammates were vocal in their support.
“This team has helped me grow so much, they’re like, ‘shoot the ball! Shoot the ball!’” Moye said.
That increased confidence has helped Moye blossom into a role where she is not only willing to work to improve her own talents but the skills of those around her as well.
“She is awesome, the entire team loves her. She brings a side of joy along with a relentless work ethic. She’s always willing to do extra to not only get her own individual skills better but also to benefit the team.”
Playing point guard as an athlete who has proven to be trustworthy and put the team first has helped build up communication between Moye and Micaletti.
“She’s definitely taken on more of a leadership role because she’s been playing the point guard position which is an extension of the coach on the floor,” Micaletti said. “Her and I have a decent amount of dialogue as for what needs to happen, what plays to call and stuff like that.”
Hard work rewarded
The amount of effort Moye exerted while getting herself in a position of leadership and trustworthiness has not gone unrecognized either. After starting out as a walk-on, she is now a scholarship student-athlete.
“When I got the text from Coach Ryenn to go to her office, I was confused because I didn’t know what was going on. I was really grateful when she told me,” Moye said. “I was so happy. I felt like she wanted me here and I had never felt like that before.”
Her numbers from a year ago back up the decision, as well as maintaining the same mindset she had when she first arrived. Despite having proved so much already, the junior makes a point of never letting her effort slip. That involves a couple pre-game routines to keep her dialed in, including stepping out onto the court first.
“I like to be the first one on the court. I like to get my form shots up and I like to shoot layups right before the games,” Moye said.
Perfecting her form pre-game is important to the guard and it shows in the consistency she displayed last year.
Moye sank over 40% of her shots attempted from behind the arc in the 2023-24 season which was good for best on the team.
Had she accrued enough attempts to qualify, her 40.6% mark from three would have been good enough for best in the PSAC, ahead of Shepherd University Peyton Grant’s 39.2% first-place qualifying mark.
Moye’s free-throw percentage was a similar story. She shot at an 81% clip from the free-throw line which would slot in the top 10 in the PSAC.
The scholarship is not just warranted from an on-the-court perspective. After graduating high school with high honors, Moye was named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team and earned PSAC Scholar-Athlete honors.
“I think her commitment to the entire student athlete experience says a ton. That she’s willing to do her best no matter what area it’s in,” Micaletti said. “Those are the types of people that you want in your program and she sets a great example for the rest of the team.”
The commitment has led to a high level of respect from within the program.
“[She’s an] excellent leader and she’s just going to get better and better with more experience. I’m very honored to coach her,” Micaletti said.
Outside of basketball, Micaletti hopes those around Moye can learn from the path she has taken.
“She has a blue-collar mentality. She’s going to work and work and work until she gets it right. I hope that not just her teammates but anyone who knows about her can learn from that,” Micaletti said.
