One Moore reason

to ‘Wake Up’
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

It’s more than a game — or Moore than a game.

On Thursday morning, Appalachian State University football coach Jerry Moore was the guest speaker at “Wake Up Watauga,”’ a breakfast lecture series hosted by the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce at the Dan’l Boone Inn.

Moore said enthusiasm for football had spilled over into the community and that completing the expansion of Kidd Brewer Stadium, up to a capacity of 30,000 people, had taken a lot of work.

“I can’t tell you what kind of football team we’re going to be,” he said, with the team 1-1, having lost its opener to top 10-ranked Louisiana State University.

“LSU is a terrific football team,” he said.

Moore praised his team for not quitting against LSU after facing a big deficit in the second half.

“We learned a lot from it,” he said. “I don’t think we wasted four hours.”

In the team’s second game, ASU beat Jacksonville in its home opener, with a packed house showing up to fill the new seats. “It’s about our football team, but more than anything else I’m starting to realize, it’s more than a game,” Moore said.

“We had over 30,000 people out here.” Moore said the team had a great week of practice during its bye week. “We’re a young football team,” he said.

“That’s good and bad.”

Moore said losing two games last year after a huge upset of Michigan presented a challenge to his team that eventually led to its third consecutive national championship. “Handling adversity in life and handling it in sports, that what makes it happen,” Moore said. He said players enjoyed wearing the team T-shirt but they had to give up something in order to be successful. He said the same thing was true of business owners, and he said older players had to serve as role models.

“They’re looking to see what you do 24 hours a day,” Moore said.

Moore thanked donor Tommy Sofield for supporting an indoor field that allowed the team to get extra practice this year.

“I’d only been here one year and I knew we needed an indoor practice facility,” he said. “And not just for football. The Sofields have made a huge impact on our athletic teams and our facilities.”

Moore said the players had gotten a morale boost from the stadium improvements.

“You never thought there would be a crane in Boone, North Carolina,” he said. “The players see all those cranes and all that construction and it gets your adrenaline flowing.” He said, in sub-division football, ASU would soon have the finest stadium in the country.

He said ASU’s would be better than those of other state universities in the same division and said the administrators had supported the football program. Moore said ASU had been in the playoffs early in his tenure, and fans had begun to keep up with potential opponents who might meet ASU in the playoffs as well as Southern Conference foes.

The coach added, Division I football had “missed the boat” by using a bowl format instead of a playoff for the championship.

Chamber of Commerce board chairman Scott Eggers said the business community had benefited from the success of ASU sports, and more jobs had become available as a result.

ASU chief of staff Loren Baumhover introduced Moore, who is in his 20th season at ASU after stints at several schools and is the most winning coach in Southern Conference history.

He is a three-time Division I-AA coach of the year. Baumhover said a $50 million athletics expansion, funded by donations, was a direct result of football, and said Moore joined the team after successful stints with a number of colleges.

The attendees observed a moment of silence to commemorate those who died during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.