“I’m humbled and honored to be recognized in this way, which I count as a tribute to all the Emmanuel players who have played for me,” Moore said. “Their dedication, hard work and commitment to our core values and team culture will always be special to my tenure as coach.”
Moore will retire after this season. He’s spent 21 years coaching at the varsity level, including 19 seasons at Emmanuel Christian (2001-2011, 2014-2023) and two at Graham High School (2012-2014). He’s won 249 games during his coaching career.
Moore has served as principal at ECA for the last five years. As the demands have increased over the years, Moore decided it was time to devote more time to being an educator, he said.
“”I can’t give the same amount of time and energy that I used to as a coach and principal,” he said. “I’ve always thought that if it gets to the place where I can’t put the time in I know I need to put in with coaching that it’s time to step away.”
At the grind
Moore’s tenure began differently than most area coaches. As a new, non-Ohio High School Athletic Association affiliated program in the early 2000s, ECA fought for years for legitimacy, especially amongst the Clark County schools, Moore said.
“It was hard,” he said. “We just kind of had to keep at the grind. I had to keep making calls. We played prep schools back then just to get games. When we made the commitment to be an OHSAA school, that was the difference.
“The more competitive that we were, the more teams were willing to give us a shot,” Moore said.
In 2003, the Lions joined the OHSAA and began scheduling games with other Clark and Champaign County schools. They earned their first tournament win later that season against Bradford. In 2009, ECA joined the Metro Buckeye Conference, providing them the opportunity to play even more Springfield and Dayton-area schools.
“Now, we’re in a place where we have a very competitive schedule every year with the goal to play county teams and be as local as we possibly can,” Moore said. “It’s fun to see where we’ve been and where we’re at now.”
After two years at Graham, Moore returned to the Lions in 2014 — and the Lions flourished. They advanced to the D-IV District tournament in 2018 and 2020 and won their first-ever Metro Buckeye Conference championship in 2020. The key, he said, was that some of their best players began staying at ECA, rather than transferring to different schools. They’ve had five different players earn All-Metro Buckeye Conference first team honors over the past five seasons.
“They bought into what we were doing and they felt proud about where we were and who they were playing for,” Moore said. “That was the big change for us, people understanding they wanted their kids to stay here and be with us to play.”
One of Moore’s favorite memories is a game against Northwestern in 2019 that came during a run of 22 straight home wins over two seasons. The Lions trailed the Warriors 37-25 at the half.
“It was really telling for us because everybody kind of put it on the line,” Moore said. “We had too much at stake to lose.”
The Lions outscored the Warriors 16-3 in the third quarter and pulled away in the final eight minutes, winning 67-56 to keep their home streak alive.
“We went on the whole next year to (stay undefeated at home),” Moore said. “That home stretch of great students and fanbase giving us great support. It was a lot of fun.”
‘A blessing’
Moore also coached all three of his sons — Caleb Moore (2016), Luke Moore (2019) and Nathan Moore (2022) — during his time with the program.
There were other times Moore thought about stepping away from coaching, but his wife, Lynette, always reminded him that coaching is “what we do.”
“She’s been my best supporter about coaching,” he said. “She didn’t want to hear it about me walking away with my boys still playing. … I never coached to coach my sons, it just kind of happened. It was a blessing to be able to do that.”
Over the years, Moore has been named coach of the year in Clark County, the Metro Buckeye Conference and the Southwest District. He thanked longtime assistant coaches Eric Hayes and Spud Garrett, who have been with him nearly his entire tenure.
Lions assistant coach Brandon Peterson will take over as head coach at ECA next season. Peterson recently coached the Catholic Central girls basketball program, winning the Ohio Heritage Conference South Division title in 2021. He’s spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach with the Lions boys program.
“He’s been a real good fit and I think he’s just perfect to take the program on and continue what we’ve been doing,” Moore said.
Moore’s had a big impact on students at ECA, said Lions athletic director Rick Herring.
“Coach Moore has built a basketball culture at ECA that every coach wants in their program over the last 21 years,” he said. “He wears multiple hats here at ECA. He is a husband, father, coach and mentor to so many people. He has always been about making his players and the people around him better. He has a heart and soul passion for ECA and wants to see it succeed at all levels. You will not find a coach in the area that coaches with the high level of integrity that he does. He has had an outstanding career as the ECA basketball coach.”
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