Allison Moore Right at Home in Tuscaloosa
4/15/2007 12:00:00 AM | Softball
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ?? Crimson Tide sophomore Allison Moore was born and raised in Tuscaloosa and now is in her second year with the University of Alabama softball team.
The local product is a pitcher and first baseman for the Tide. Moore attended Hillcrest High School before making her decision to stay at home and attend the University of Alabama. Growing up she would went to several Alabama softball camps and games and became familiar with the coaching staff.
"We went to all the games and camps," said Moore. "I went to so many camps. It was perfect. I am from here and they had a great program and were winning. It was all positives. There was no reason for me to look somewhere else. When the opportunity came I took it. We had an unofficial visit my junior year and he asked me if I would play and I said yes."
Moore has two older sisters, Amanda and Megan. When Allison was in seventh grade her sister, Amanda, went off to college to play softball for the University of Florida. Although Allison was just starting to play softball at her school, she was still able to make a few trips to Gainesville to watch her sister play.
"I went down there a couple of times," said Allison. "I didn't go down there as much as I would like. When she went down there I was just starting to play and both our seasons were in the spring so I could never really go down there. When I did go down there it was good."
Allison says she didn't realize right away that her older sister would be so far away and gone for so long. Once it hit her that she was gone she started to want to make more and more trips to watch her play and visit her.
"I have to say that when she first went it didn't really hit me because I didn't understand that when you move out and go to college that is it," said Moore. "You can come back but it is never the same. About the end of her sophomore year and her junior year I really tried to go down there a lot."
The Moore family welcomed their daughter and her team when they traveled to Tuscaloosa to face the Tide. Allison's parents, Samuel and Darla Moore, would have the team over to their house for dinner.
"When Florida would come to Alabama my parents would always have the girls over," said Allison. "My mom and grandmother would cook for two days straight to feed them. It was really cool to have them come to our house."
The middle child in the Moore family, Megan, would also go on to play softball at Florida. Unlike her two sisters, she was a catcher. However, an injury during a fall scrimmage her freshman season would cause her to cut her collegiate career short. She was hit in the face and decided to move back to Tuscaloosa to make the entire family back together again. Amanda and her husband also moved back and now live in a house right down the road from her parents.
When Allison started looking at schools she was looking at Baylor, Mississippi State and Alabama. Even though her two sisters had gone to Florida, she felt like Gainesville was not the place for her.
"The schools I liked were more rural," said Allison. "I didn't want to be in the city where it is real busy and congested. I wanted to be able to get away. Florida was so compact and there were so many people there. At 2:30 p.m. in the afternoon it was bumper to bumper traffic. I just didn't like that. I like the big schools in the smaller area."
Amanda was a lot of help for Allison during the recruiting process and first year in school. She had gone through it all before and was able to offer good advice to her younger sister. Throughout the entire recruiting process Amanda did not try to persuade Allison into going to Florida.
"She didn't try to talk me into going to Florida," said Allison. "She said it was my decision. If I went to Florida that was good but if I didn't she would support me with my decision. Amanda was finished before I even started recruiting. I talked to her about it because she had been there. I used that to my advantage."
Once Allison chose to stay home and play at Alabama, she looked to her sister for advice on pitching at the college level.
"She told me that when you play summer ball you mainly worry about your 3-4-5 hitters," said Allison. "In college ball 1-9 in the lineup is your four and five hitters throughout the whole lineup. In summer ball you can bear down on those three and then take a breather. In college you have to bear down on all nine. It is more physically and mentally demanding. You have to think about every pitch. When you play up here and you make a mistake, anybody 1-9 can hit it out of the park."
Knowing that pitching in college would be more mentally and physically demanding helped Allison coming in to school, but she would still have to go through the adjustment from playing at the high school level to playing in college. Having her sister around to talk to made the adjustment that much easier for her.
"I am so thankful that she was there," said Allison. "She went through it and could talk to me about it. That fall season my freshman year was hard. She was my way to call and vent to somebody. I didn't have to explain how hard and how tired and how stressful it was. She had been through it. I don't know how many times I called and we just sat there. I would start crying and she would start crying. Nothing would be said but she knew how I felt. That helped me get through a lot."
The bond between Allison and her two sisters has always been close even with the difference in age. The three of them helped each other succeed in softball by playing together in the back yard.
"All the time," said Moore. "All three of us and daddy used to get out there with us. Even though Amanda and I are different in age, we are still best friends. We used to pitch to each other but just playing around. I couldn't hit off Amanda, she threw hard. She was a drop ball pitcher. She had a very nasty drop ball. I think she has broken two or three catcher's thumbs. We are totally opposite pitchers. She was a ground ball pitcher. They tried to get Megan to pitch but she wouldn't do that. They stuck her behind the plate and she was good at that."
Now that all three are back in Tuscaloosa they can all spend time together. Having her family close by has made Allison appreciate going to school in her hometown and want to share her family with her teammates. If some of her teammates can't be with their families during a holiday Allison will invite them to spend the holiday with her family.
"These 18 girls are like my sisters so my family is their family," said Moore. "The ones who are still in town I will invite them over to spend time with our family. It would break my mom and dad's heart to know that one of them had to stay here by themselves."
Even when it is not a holiday, she will invite her teammates over to eat with her at either her parents house or her grandparents house.
"When I go home I usually try to take some of the girls with me," said Allison. "My grandmother lives closer so if she is cooking sometimes we will go there. I have taken a bunch of the girls to eat either my grandmother's or my mom's cooking."
Allison realizes how hard it is for some of the players to be so far away from home. That makes her appreciate have her family close by where she could see them several times a week.
"It makes me very thankful," said Allison. "Hats off to them because I couldn't be that far from home. That is amazing that somebody can do that. It is nice having my grandparents close by. I am big on family so it is nice to be close. My mom, dad and sisters mean the world to me."
Moore and the Crimson Tide will be on the road for four games this week. They travel to Oxford, Ala. on Tuesday to face Mercer at 6:30 p.m. They then make the trip to Oxford, Miss. for a weekend series against Ole Miss on Saturday and Sunday.
