https://aroundthevalleyin60days.blog/2024/03/14/its-time-for-part-1-5-of-the-tiffany-moore-story/
The link above takes you to some of the build up I was working on in regards to Miss Tiffanie Moore of Dugspur.
Last night, during my conversation with Ryan McCafferty of The Carroll News, we were discussing my work on this book and why I felt it was so relevant. Like Ryan, I wasn’t in Carroll County back in 2015, but when I moved here on New Years Day of 2021, the softball park really stuck out. I had a history with the sport, so I started digging around.
See, Frank Beamer was born here well over half a century ago, and he is still relevant at the highest level. There was a courthouse incident that is still discussed from many a moon ago that still has people talking, so how is the very first State Championship in the history of the school of less value after just one decade ?
Buy I, too, was in a sizable hole because I arrived five plus years after the fact, so I didn’t know the story or the hundreds of side stories behind them.
Head Coach Rick Nester reached out right before one of his former Lady Cavalier was set to be inducted into the school Hall of Fame. Coach was trying to enlighten me about someone named Tiffanie Moore. Being honest, the way he described her, I was picturing a cartoon type Super Hero, like maybe Wonder Woman.
Alan Knight was in town, having made the trip down from Page County, and we sat together in the gym for the basketball game and the ceremony. Moore was there and was surrounded by a few members of the US Secret Service. It was fascinating to hear the story, so when the night was over, I reached out to Allen Worrell to check on the possibility of me doing a feature on her.
One of the reasons why Allen and I made such a great team was that we made sure to never write the same story. He covered the bigger events and gave me access to everything else. Once he did his story on the entire Class going in, he gave me the green light.
I knew that there was an illness involved but didn’t know anything about the details. This led me to invite my wife to join us for the trip up to Dugspur in hopes that she could dumb down the medical portion for me. There are a number of areas where I lack knowledge past elementary school level and medical is atop that list.
Part 1 of 4 – How does one measure the value of a Role Model ?
The hours spent inside the Moore home will never be forgotten about, and I set out to make Tiff our poster child for everything we stand for.
During the visit, Tiff asked one thing from me, and that was if I were to tell her story, PLEASE don’t make it about her health issues. We agreed to that request, and when we finally said our goodbyes, I started preparing to write a feature story that would make the New York Times want to run it !
Fast forward to the second of our three Alumni Game Day celebrations, and there was a MOMENT that I felt ranked in the neighborhood of Jim Valvano at the ESPYs. After Tiff was done, I offered the microphone to her father, and he also made me tear up with his words.
On that same day, Greg Bolen and Russell Smoot joined Kevin Burress and I in a five minute attempt at a music comedy sketch. Bolen capped it off by dropping to the ground and doing the worm. Allen Worrell captured the moment with his camera, and it ended up on the front page of the newspaper. There were also a couple of videos floating around. It was priceless!
When I am creating a live event like that, it is an unscripted reality theater production, and sadly, it wasn’t captured by anyone. Quite possibly one of the historical moments in the history of CCHS softball, and I wasn’t prepared
Yes, this young lady went on to play college softball, shoot a riffle as well as anyone, and eventually advance to protecting the president. Most of my stories are about Parents and their children, and WOW is this one a keeper! Just wish that I could have captured the moment…
There will eventually be a beautiful piece that Dad wrote for his little girl that will appear here as well !
