Husker_Power
Starter
Published Thursday | August 23, 2007
BY STEVE TAKABA
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
LINK
LINCOLN - The trash-talking Texas offensive lineman won't be intimidating Terrence Moore. He might even laugh if he hears a Nebraska football teammate whine about a lack of playing time.
It's not that Moore is being cocky or disrespectful. Those close to the freshman defensive lineman say he's quite the opposite. It's because Moore knows what true adversity is all about.
Moore and his mother, Judy Hunter, were victims as Hurricane Katrina crippled New Orleans in August 2005. Moore witnessed the devastation up close, and all one needs to do is hear the kid speak to see that surviving the disaster has matured him beyond his 18 years.
"When people complain, I don't really listen to it," Moore said. "I don't complain too much anymore because I know how it is to take things for granted and just lose it."
He said the house he lived in the first 16 years of his life was destroyed. The Huskers are happy to give Moore a home in Lincoln.
NU defensive line coach Buddy Wyatt said Moore is coming along well in training camp. He just needs to add some weight to his 6-foot-3, 270-pound frame.
Wyatt said Moore has the tools to be a Blackshirt one day, even a captain. Maybe he'll follow in the footsteps of ex-Husker and Kansas City Chiefs star Neil Smith, who attended Moore's high school in New Orleans - McDonogh 35. Moore even wears No. 90 like Smith did with the Chiefs.
"This is the number they gave me," he said. "Things happen for a reason, I guess."
He learned that all too well two years ago.
When Katrina hit, Moore stayed at the hospital where his mom was forced to work 20-hour days as a nursing assistant. They were stuck there for a week without electricity and little food or water. "She had to help the patients, and a lot of them were dying," he said.
With the water rising around the hospital, Moore sat by a window on the second floor and saw the gruesome reality.
"I saw it go from being dry to the city filling up with water in a few minutes," Moore said. "I saw the bodies floating in the water. I saw everything first-hand."
Hunter said a co-worker got in touch with CNN to tell the network that people were still stuck in the hospital. It was first reported that the hospital was already evacuated, she said.
Moore said eventually they were taken by boat to a dry port where they were bussed to a shelter in Baton Rouge.
"We just prayed, just stayed strong and knew we were going to make it through," Moore said. "They had to come get us sometime."
Getting out of New Orleans was only part of what Moore has had to deal with in the past two years.
Three days and two different shelters after being rescued, Moore and his mom made their way to Houston, where she decided to find work. They lived in a motel for four months before finding an apartment.
That didn't stop Moore from excelling on and off the football field at Spring High School. It wasn't your typical inner-city high school like McDonogh 35.
"It looked like a college," Hunter said.
Because of his situation, Moore played just four games during his junior season at Spring. He still managed to catch the eye of college football recruiters. His Spring coaches were impressed, too, which turned out to be trouble for Moore's coach at McDonogh 35, Wayne Reese.
"What made it so bad, the people in Texas, these guys wouldn't let anybody know what was going on with Terrence," Reese said. "It was like they were trying to kidnap him to make sure he didn't get out of there. They'd have done anything to keep him there."
Moore kept up his 3.7 GPA at Spring, but he said staying there wasn't an option. He decided to go back to New Orleans because his peers needed him, he said.
It was a move made tougher since his mom was staying in Texas. Moore, the youngest of Hunter's three children, said he and his mother are extremely close. So close Moore shed tears when talking about their relationship during his first interview as a Husker before a group of reporters. He said she breaks down, too, when they talk on the phone now because she's so proud of what hes accomplished.
But Moore said he had to go back. He didn't care that New Orleans neighborhoods were riddled with crime and violence.
Gun shots rang out everywhere, he said. More troubling to him was that many of his friends got caught up in the delinquency.
"I just couldn't abandon my high school team like that," Moore said. "I was the leader. If I wouldn't have come back, who were they going to look up to?"
As for football, Reese said he's not surprised Moore's at a major program like Nebraska.
Moore could have played in any conference in the country, the coach said. Not bad for a kid who didn't play the sport until the ninth grade.
Earning instant playing time, though, or even fulfilling NFL dreams isn't necessarily what Moore's after. Moore said priority No. 1 is getting his degree. Perhaps motivational speaking would suit him with all hes been through. He said he'll study astronomy and then get his master's in business instead.
"I want to get my diploma first," Moore said. "Who wants to be trying to get their degree when they're 40 years old? Not me.
"I want to have something to show for however many years I'm here. It's a great academic school. I'd be dumb not to get my degree before I leave."
Wyatt said there's no doubt that's going to happen.
"He doesn't let his peers lead him down the wrong path," Wyatt said. "He's one of those kids that has a plan and he's going to stay on the course to get it done.
BY STEVE TAKABA
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
LINK
LINCOLN - The trash-talking Texas offensive lineman won't be intimidating Terrence Moore. He might even laugh if he hears a Nebraska football teammate whine about a lack of playing time.
It's not that Moore is being cocky or disrespectful. Those close to the freshman defensive lineman say he's quite the opposite. It's because Moore knows what true adversity is all about.
Moore and his mother, Judy Hunter, were victims as Hurricane Katrina crippled New Orleans in August 2005. Moore witnessed the devastation up close, and all one needs to do is hear the kid speak to see that surviving the disaster has matured him beyond his 18 years.
"When people complain, I don't really listen to it," Moore said. "I don't complain too much anymore because I know how it is to take things for granted and just lose it."
He said the house he lived in the first 16 years of his life was destroyed. The Huskers are happy to give Moore a home in Lincoln.
NU defensive line coach Buddy Wyatt said Moore is coming along well in training camp. He just needs to add some weight to his 6-foot-3, 270-pound frame.
Wyatt said Moore has the tools to be a Blackshirt one day, even a captain. Maybe he'll follow in the footsteps of ex-Husker and Kansas City Chiefs star Neil Smith, who attended Moore's high school in New Orleans - McDonogh 35. Moore even wears No. 90 like Smith did with the Chiefs.
"This is the number they gave me," he said. "Things happen for a reason, I guess."
He learned that all too well two years ago.
When Katrina hit, Moore stayed at the hospital where his mom was forced to work 20-hour days as a nursing assistant. They were stuck there for a week without electricity and little food or water. "She had to help the patients, and a lot of them were dying," he said.
With the water rising around the hospital, Moore sat by a window on the second floor and saw the gruesome reality.
"I saw it go from being dry to the city filling up with water in a few minutes," Moore said. "I saw the bodies floating in the water. I saw everything first-hand."
Hunter said a co-worker got in touch with CNN to tell the network that people were still stuck in the hospital. It was first reported that the hospital was already evacuated, she said.
Moore said eventually they were taken by boat to a dry port where they were bussed to a shelter in Baton Rouge.
"We just prayed, just stayed strong and knew we were going to make it through," Moore said. "They had to come get us sometime."
Getting out of New Orleans was only part of what Moore has had to deal with in the past two years.
Three days and two different shelters after being rescued, Moore and his mom made their way to Houston, where she decided to find work. They lived in a motel for four months before finding an apartment.
That didn't stop Moore from excelling on and off the football field at Spring High School. It wasn't your typical inner-city high school like McDonogh 35.
"It looked like a college," Hunter said.
Because of his situation, Moore played just four games during his junior season at Spring. He still managed to catch the eye of college football recruiters. His Spring coaches were impressed, too, which turned out to be trouble for Moore's coach at McDonogh 35, Wayne Reese.
"What made it so bad, the people in Texas, these guys wouldn't let anybody know what was going on with Terrence," Reese said. "It was like they were trying to kidnap him to make sure he didn't get out of there. They'd have done anything to keep him there."
Moore kept up his 3.7 GPA at Spring, but he said staying there wasn't an option. He decided to go back to New Orleans because his peers needed him, he said.
It was a move made tougher since his mom was staying in Texas. Moore, the youngest of Hunter's three children, said he and his mother are extremely close. So close Moore shed tears when talking about their relationship during his first interview as a Husker before a group of reporters. He said she breaks down, too, when they talk on the phone now because she's so proud of what hes accomplished.
But Moore said he had to go back. He didn't care that New Orleans neighborhoods were riddled with crime and violence.
Gun shots rang out everywhere, he said. More troubling to him was that many of his friends got caught up in the delinquency.
"I just couldn't abandon my high school team like that," Moore said. "I was the leader. If I wouldn't have come back, who were they going to look up to?"
As for football, Reese said he's not surprised Moore's at a major program like Nebraska.
Moore could have played in any conference in the country, the coach said. Not bad for a kid who didn't play the sport until the ninth grade.
Earning instant playing time, though, or even fulfilling NFL dreams isn't necessarily what Moore's after. Moore said priority No. 1 is getting his degree. Perhaps motivational speaking would suit him with all hes been through. He said he'll study astronomy and then get his master's in business instead.
"I want to get my diploma first," Moore said. "Who wants to be trying to get their degree when they're 40 years old? Not me.
"I want to have something to show for however many years I'm here. It's a great academic school. I'd be dumb not to get my degree before I leave."
Wyatt said there's no doubt that's going to happen.
"He doesn't let his peers lead him down the wrong path," Wyatt said. "He's one of those kids that has a plan and he's going to stay on the course to get it done.