Devyn Burton turned in an outstanding softball career at Wellsville-Middletown, earning all-Eastern Missouri Conference and all-district honors four times and all-region honors twice.

That success carried over into William Woods University, where she helped the Owls make two National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics tournament berths and earned an all-American Midwest Conference award.

“It was a lot of fun,” Burton said. “I met a lot of teammates and I made a lot of friends. The seasons didn’t always go as planned, but I feel like it’s more like the memories I made, like on the bus and on the trips. You don’t think about winning and losing. You think about spending all of your time with your friends everywhere you go. I got to go to a lot of cool places. I went to California for the first time. I got to go to the beach every year for spring break.”

Burton finished her college softball career with a trip to nationals in Oklahoma City. The Owls were 0-2, losing to Oklahoma City University and Eastern Oregon. Burton helped the Fulton school qualify for nationals in her sophomore year.

“Going back to nationals was a lot of fun,” Burton said. “We didn’t place or win. We gave a lot of teams a run for their money, which was nice. The team that we lost to (Oklahoma City) ended up winning the overall championship. That kind of sucked, but we did our best against them out of everybody else, so that was exciting.”

Burton played five years at William Woods. She earned an extra year of eligibility after the COVID-19 pandemic canceled her junior year.

This year, Burton drove in a career-high 27 runs. She hit .356 after 15 games in the 2020 season before it was called off. When she was a freshman, she batted .309.

“I would give my dad credit for batting,” said Burton, who was an outfielder. “I felt like he knows how to translate to me when coaches say something I really don’t understand. He pretty much taught me how to hit.”

Burton earned second team all-conference honors in the 2021 season, when she hit .291 with a home run and 20 runs batted in.

Burton was also successful in the classroom as she earned academic all-AMC honors four times. Burton said William Woods coach Tracy Gastineau made sure she and her teammates stayed focused on academics.

“You can have all of the memories, but they don’t amount to where your career is going to be,” Burton said. “So she preached academics before everything. I got my first 4.0 in my entire schooling career. I got that two years in a row, this year and last year.”

Burton graduated from W-M in 2017. When she was a senior, she earned first-team all-EMO infielder honors.

“I had a blast playing at Wellsville,” Burton said. “It wasn’t so competitive playing at Wellsville. I really liked how laid back I could be and enjoy all of the different positions. I caught pretty much all of my high school career. That was really exciting. I wasn't the best at it, but it was still fun to be like a good role model and try to keep a level head playing with people who really love to play the game.”

At the end of her senior year at W-M, Burton signed a letter of intent to play for a William Woods program that had 17 consecutive winning seasons.

“I knew I wanted to go to William Woods from the start,” Burton said. “So then I did a lot of emailing to the coach. I had her come to my games.”

Next year, Burton will return to the W-M school district this fall as she will work as a sixth-grade teacher.

“It’s exciting,” said Burton, who graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in education. “It will be challenging, but it’s going to be so awesome.”