For Moore family, latest wins are like icing on a cake
NEW BRITAIN — Gary Moore Sr. got the call from Yale New Haven Health on April 19.
“It was a Sunday and they said we’ve got a match,” Moore said. “We’re getting your room together. Operation is at 4:30. We need you down here. I was there at 1 o’clock, waiting.
“You hear you’re going to be high on the list. But then I wasn’t hearing anything. Sometimes you wonder if it’s ever going to happen.”
The kidney transplant happened.
And now here were Gary Sr. and his wife Michele, the legendary Hillhouse track coaches who have combined for 44 state titles, savoring the fruits of their labor and the fruits of their love. On Wednesday, they would watch their daughter Leah and son Gary Jr. compete together for the final time in high school in Connecticut.
As far back as 2010, Moore Sr. had spoken to the New Haven Register about his kidney failure and the fear he would not see his kids grow up. There would be a hip replacement and a thyroidectomy. There would be a decade of dialysis, awakening at 4:30 a.m. three times per week for four hours of treatment.
“I’m feeling better than I ever felt,” Gary Sr. said. “Getting that call was amazing. Not having to do dialysis is amazing in itself. Here I am. We’re still coaching. Still doing what
we need to do for the kids. I’m blessed.”
There is a steadfastness with the Moore family, an intellectual and emotional resolve both impressive and not entirely common. You hear it in the voices of father and mother. You see it in actions of daughter and son. Leah and Gary Jr. owned the 2021 CIAC weight events, five firsts and one second, yet they always are seeking new weight to shoulder.
After her final hammer throw, Leah awaited the official’s call of “mark” and stepped from the back of the hammer circle. With hands on hips, the Hillhouse senior made her way slowly to retrieve her hammer.
She wasn’t smiling. Moments later, as her name was called to retrieve the first-place medal as the state champion at 153 feet, five inches — more than 12 feet than her closest competitor — Leah still didn’t look thrilled.
“No, I’m not,” Moore said, breaking into a laugh. “I know I could have thrown farther. In situations like this, I don’t really think about winning first, my thoughts go more toward doing my best.”
Moore, who won the shot put and discus at the CIAC State Open last week to lead Hillhouse to the state title, has a PR of 164 feet in the hammer. Her goal was 170. The hammer, along with the steeplechase, boys decathlon and girls pentathlon, are not regular CIAC events. They are held separately.
“No matter how good I do, in my mind I’m always like, ‘I could have done this better,’ ” she said. “Never be satisfied. Otherwise, you’ll settle. And you will stay the same.”
That smile she didn’t have when she received her medal? It came when she thought forward to the end of the month.
“It’s OK,” Leah said. “I still have nationals.”
She’ll throw the hammer and shot in Eugene, Ore., although Leah did set a PR of 131 feet in winning the discus last week. Not bad for an event she once said she hated.
It would be the discus where her younger brother Gary, finishing his junior year at Hillhouse, would make history last week. He already had the State Open event won at 178-07 when he stepped in for his final throw.
“All these people are here
to see if he’s going to break the record that has stood for so long,” Moore Sr. said. “There was a lot of pressure, at least I thought there was.”
“That whole competition I was kind of tense,” Moore Jr. said. “I just made sure before I went into the circle, I relaxed myself.”
“I was a mess,” Michele said. “And then he threw it. I was like, ‘Oh, my!’ ”
Moore Jr. reached back and broke the State Open record of 182-11 set 52 years ago by Pete Dreissigacker of Amity with a throw of 188-07. Oh, my.
“It was crazy,” said Coventry’s Alex Krause, who finished second in the discus. “It was just floating forever through the air.”
Krause can find solace in that he beat Moore with a hammer throw of 197-04. Moore, who has a PR of 189-2, took second with 184-9.
Dreissigacker? He and his brother Dick went on to invent the Concept2 carbon fiber oar for rowing.
“That (final discus throw) showed me a level of athleticism and mentality you have to be great,” Moore Sr. said. “To have those throws off early on and come in and say, ‘You know what? This is it? Now do it.’ Man, that’s what I’m talking about as the next level.”
Moore Jr. said he will compete in all three weight events at nationals. Those events give only a glimpse of his track talent. He was the U.S. age-group leader in the pentathlon in the seventh and eighth grade. There is no doubt he would have been a terrific decathlete.
“I was just thinking about that,” Moore Jr. said.
“Gary is good at everything,” Leah said.
Michele remembers pushing Leah around the track in a carriage when she was only weeks old. She has pictures of the kids running the half-mile at the Faxon Law New Haven Road Race when they were 2 and 3. They’d find fun runs around the state for the kids. Gary Jr. and Leah not being involved in track?
“That wasn’t an option,” Michele said. “I tell people we brainwashed them.”
The truth is Leah didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as Gary Jr. at first. With success came a developing passion. Mom points to her husband and kids and says “Unbelievably competitive. I’m the calm one.”
Unfortunately, Gary spent his freshman year battling Osgood-Schlatter in his knees. That growth disrupted some of what he
could do.
“We had to come to grips with that might not be the course,” Moore Sr. said. “Michele took it hard, but we had to change with the kids. Leah started out the same way (with knee problems) and she became a thrower. OK, he is a thrower now. He was having success. Let’s see what happens.”
UCLA, Baylor, Florida, Harvard; Gary Jr. said he is seriously considering a handful of schools right now. He is leaning toward the hard weather. This much both mom and dad know. He will make his own choice just as Leah did with Kentucky.
“I just ask questions at the end,” Gary Sr. said. “How did you come up with your choice? Leah gave me some great answers.”
Leah hasn’t visited Lexington yet and will go out for orientation July 8. She is looking to be at school Aug. 12.
“We’ve gone to meets together our whole lives,” Gary Jr. said. “Next year is going to be different.”
“I have mixed feelings,” Leah said. “I’m going to miss this. I’m also excited about getting away from home and experiencing something new. I think I’m ready for it.”
Both mom and dad know she is ready academically and athletically.
“Leah has earned what she has accomplished,” Michelle said. “She’s about business. She’s prepared. She’s our baby. So I’m a little nervous, but more excited. That outweigh the fears.”
Gary Moore Sr. says track and field is a sport you can love to hate. It can be rough on you mentally. He has impressed on his athletes and on his kids to put in the time.
“It’s like a cake,” he said. “You can’t miss ingredients and expect the same results. With training it’s the same way. You can’t do part of it and expect the result. Even then it doesn’t mean you’re going to win. Sometimes people are better. But it’s not about that. It’s about doing your best and being your best.
“And then even when you win, you can focus on how you didn’t do this or that good enough. That’s when you have to talk someone like Leah off the ledge. Don’t focus on the negative. Focus on what you did do well.”
Mom considered her daughter’s final day, first place in the hammer.
“There is icing on that cake,” Michele said. “Leah did a great job. I’m kind of going to miss her next year.”