Throughout his life, Mosey has had a knack for just about every sport he’s tried. In t-ball, he was able to hit — and round the bases — with ease right away. Whether it was swinging a golf club, playing basketball, or his eventual introduction to football, everything always clicked.
One thing rang true above all: He wanted to be active, and he wanted to be in on the action.
As such, t-ball wasn’t quite his speed — particularly the fielding part. Midway through his first season of t-ball, his mother, Jenn, looked over to the outfield, and found a young Max lying down in the grass. She began frantically urging him to stand up and focus on the game, but Max simply shook his head no, smiled, and turned his head the other way.
So in an effort to find something much better tuned to his energy level, Mosey turned to football. He first played for the Holy Name Jets in his native Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His uncle coached for an older group, and Mosey took a liking to the sport, which was a family affair — his father, older brother, and cousins all played football as well (his cousin Bobby played center on his high school team).
In his first year playing with the Jets, Mosey played as the team’s center — because he was the only one on the team who could snap a football in shotgun — and also at guard and tackle. Soon after, he tried playing fullback, and on his first handoff he scored a touchdown, which cemented that he was a much better fit in skill positions.
He was in on the action as frequently as he could be, on both offense and defense, and eventually, he found his way to quarterback. In the eighth grade, while playing for his uncle Steve, he was able to absorb information and read defenses so well that he was trusted to audible and call plays on his own.
After stepping into a starting role as a freshman at Central Dauphin High School, there was no sense of pressure or stress.
“At that young of an age, it’s not just a matter of talent — it’s a matter of mental toughness,” said his father, Joe. “And he was able to handle the pressure.”
He helped guide the Rams to a state championship berth during his sophomore season (where they ultimately fell to a St. Joseph’s Prep squad featuring Kyle McCord, Marvin Harrison Jr. and Jeremiah Trotter Jr.). In a decorated high school career, Mosey passed for more than 4,400 yards.
But when Mosey arrived at Holy Cross, he was met with a crowded and experienced quarterbacks room — and it was clear early that it would be an uphill battle to see the field as a quarterback. So when presented with the opportunity to abandon the position he’d played for six years and instead take on another role, he agreed to play whatever would get him on the field the fastest, and whatever would help the team the most.
And that role was wide receiver — a position largely unfamiliar to Mosey.
“Getting into a new position group, there's a lot of things that you missed out on training-wise — how to run routes, how to get out of cuts, stuff like that,” Mosey said. “I hadn’t worked on that almost at all. So going from a position that you played for almost your whole life into a brand new one where you had basically no training, it’s hard on you, because you have to basically start from base level and just try to work your way up.”
But at the same time, he was optimistic about the new opportunity.
“I felt like with my background as a quarterback, I was able to diagnose certain coverages, looks I would see on the defense, how to run a certain route to make it more favorable for the quarterback to throw the ball,” Mosey said. “So I had that background knowledge that would help me transition a little bit faster.”
“I think he looked at it as a challenge,” Jenn said, “and that's one thing that Max really doesn't shy away from: a challenge.”
