Head girls junior varsity soccer coach Scott Moore coaches the students trying out for the CCHS team. Students scrimmaged to show what they can do on the field. “I try to instill some leadership qualities, vocal leadership, leadership by example,” Moore said. Photo by Julie Alpaugh.
By STACEE DILLARD – Staff Writer
Former Burney Harris Lyons Middle School girls soccer coach Scott Moore is taking the next step in his coaching career at Clarke Central High School.
After coaching soccer at Burney Harris Lyons Middle School for four years, Scott Moore was hired as the new junior varsity girls soccer coach at Clarke Central High School for the 2016 season
Growing up in Snellville, Ga., Moore would play with his friends, older brother, and parents.
“I started playing baseball, then I picked up tennis, then basketball, and soccer after that,” Moore said. “Both my parents were really good at tennis and so that (was) what got me going.”
After graduating from Brookwood High School, Moore attended the University of Georgia and earned his teaching degree in mathematics. He saw sports as more of a hobby and decided to focus on his teaching career.
“Teaching runs in my family. My grandmother was a career teacher and principal in south Georgia, and two of her sisters were teachers,” Moore said. “My AP U.S. History teacher in high school showed me the impact a truly good teacher can have.”
Moore first began coaching boys soccer in 2009 while he was student teaching at Clarke Middle School. From there, he moved on to become the head girls varsity soccer coach at Burney Harris Lyons Middle School for four years. There, he met the CCHS head girls varsity soccer coach Chris Hulse in 2012.
“The varsity coach at the time (Pauly Shenton) gave me permission to start reaching out to the middle schools and trying to expand basically what we were already doing to get our focus beyond just our kids,” Hulse said. “When I reached out to Burney Harris, Coach Moore quickly replied and we’ve been working together pretty much ever since.”
During the summer of 2015, Moore made the move to become the girls junior varsity soccer coach for CCHS.
“The JV position opened this year and I was just ready for a change,” Moore said. “I enjoyed coaching at BHL, but I was ready to come up and try something different at the high school.”
Freshman and former JV soccer player Yocelin Rodriguez looked forward to the possibility of playing for Moore once again as the soccer season approached. Rodriguez played for him for two years while she was on the BHL girls soccer team and says she learned a lot from his coaching.
“He teaches you in a great way,” Rodriguez said. “If you do something wrong, he won’t get mad at you and he would just help you to get it better.”
Moore admits that his coaching style is detail-oriented.
“I like to pay attention to the details. I’m a stickler,” Moore said. “If a girl (is) not doing something right, I’m gonna blow the drill at that point, teach and then go on with it.”
Sophomore and JV soccer player Neha Mohanty, who played under Moore for three years, respects his coaching style and believes he has helped her improve.
“He’s taught me a lot of things off the field,” Mohanty said. “He’s a very intuitive person so I often go to him for advice, and he taught me to keep my head up and always power through.”
Moore values the role that creativity and communication play in soccer.
“I like how every single person has to be on the same page in order for something to work. There is also a lot of creativity as far as skills kids can do, so it isn’t just being able to run past them like maybe in football,” Moore said. “You need to be able to do tricks with the ball to win a one-on-one situation.”
While he values skill, Moore looks for hard work and a positive demeanor in his players above all.
“I would rather have eleven players out there with good effort and attitude and average skills than I would with highly skilled players that take plays off and only plays when they want to,” Moore said.
