Moore comes full circle; area kids benefit

Published 3:09 pm Monday, July 31, 2023

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Campers square off during a one on one drill during Terry Moore’s football camp Saturday in Washington. (Steve Barnes/Washington Daily News)

Former Washington High School star and current Duke free safety Terry Moore returned to his football roots Saturday as over 100 area kids took part in his first Dream Big skills camp at Kugler Field in Washington.

Moore started playing on the Kugler grass in the Washington Youth Football League as soon as he was old enough and developed into a Division I athlete who has a chance to start the opener against Clemson his sophomore year.

“It’s really cool to come back to the field that I starting playing on to help encourage these kids to dream big,” Moore said. “I had so much fun playing youth football here and today turned out much better than I thought it would. It’s great to see these guys laughing and having fun playing football while hopefully learning a few things at the same time.”

Moore had several former Pam Pack teammates on hand to serve as coaches along with new Beaufort County Athletic Director Keith Mitchell and three of his current Blue Devil teammates, Michael Reese, B. J. Anthony and Jontavis Robertson.

The coaches split the players into elementary and middle school groups and went through a series of fundamental drills, followed by one on one running and passing drills. A 40-yard race ended the two hour session shortly before noon.

Moore has spent the last nine months planning and coordinating the event and could have used the new Name, Image and Likeness rules to cash in on his notoriety.

“I had so much help from a lot of people here when I was growing up and I wanted to do the same for these kids, so I never even thought about charging them for it” Moore said. “I wanted it to be free so everyone could attend. My main message to them at the end was to never let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. Dream big and work hard and you’ll get where you want to go.”

11-year old Janeir Hardy, a rising sixth grader at P.J. Jones Middle School in Washington, knew who Moore was and was glad he came.

“It will motivate me to work harder,” he said. “If I do, maybe I can be where he (Moore) is when I’m older.”