Sean Moore was born to ski.
To say that Forest Hills junior Sean Moore was destined to compete on snow skis might be stating the case a little too lightly. When you consider that his parents, Alan and Cathy, met while they were teenagers working at Bill & Paul’s Sport Haus and the fact that they both have earned a living teaching others to ski and as members of the Ski Patrol in Michigan and Colorado it is no wonder Sean is happy to fly down snowy slopes weaving in and out of the gates in the slalom and giant slalom events.
While we spoke with Alan Moore about his son, he had to wear two different hats: father and coach. Alan has coached the Rangers ski team for almost 20 years and Sean is the last of four Moore kids to compete with their dad as coach. As a personal aside, we must mention that while growing up the name “Alan Moore” was synonymous in our household with skiing downhill at blistering speeds in a controlled manner that was right on the edge of craziness. Suffice it to say that Alan worked with Warren Miller making fantastic documentaries about skiing and appears in a couple of his films – like 1973’s “Winter People”.
Alan told us that he and his brother Steve skied for the first time when he was just seven years old. They found some wood skis of WWII vintage and would climb up a hill in Grand Rapids, strap them on and ski to the bottom, take them off to climb back up and repeat until exhausted. Alan and Cathy worked at Cannonsburg; one as an instructor and the other as a Ski Patrol and then changed roles when they moved out to Winter Park, CO after getting married. They passed their love of skiing along to all of their children. Allison, the oldest, coached the first ski team at Forest Hills Eastern before moving out of the area. Sean’s older brother Ryan was a member of the team that won a State Championship for the Rangers. Ryan, a mechanical engineer, gives back to the team by running the timing gates at their meets. Mari-Megan qualified for the State meet on her own as a Ranger and she attends MSU.
Alan agrees that Sean was destined to ski.
“We all have the ski gene – he was dragged into it whether he wanted to or not,” Alan joked. “Sean has been going to varsity ski meets since he was a baby.”
Speaking as Sean’s coach, Alan pointed out that he considers his son to be a good team leader. Sean is helpful at practice and the meets by setting up gates and seeing to other details. He is a team player who goes out of his way to help new kids fit into the rhythm of the team. Alan praised his son’s technical ability on the slopes and said he looks for a top ten finish from him this season. Last year he and Kyle Bloch took it upon themselves to put together a video portrait of the ski team. They used a helmet mounted camera in addition to another camera to record a couple of hours of video of the team. They also incorporated “thousands of pictures” given to them by parents and boiled it all down to a 15 minute video that was very popular with the team. (Shades of Warren Miller!)
The video connection to skiing became clear as we spoke with Sean. He is part of the FX Team at FHC – they are responsible for the daily announcements as well as running the lights and sound in the auditorium for various programs. Sean is called “The Fixer” because when something goes wrong, he is generally the one who can make it whole again.
Boy Scouting is another activity Sean has been involved in for most of his life. He started when he was in kindergarten and worked his way up with the goal in his mind of becoming an Eagle Scout before he made it to high school. Proving that he is steadfast in setting and meeting goals, Sean earned his Eagle Scout by the time he was 14.
“If my heart is into it, then I will get something done as soon as possible,” Sean explained.
Speaking as a dad, Alan related that Sean has “never been any problem – no terrible teenage problems to deal with”. He was very proud when Sean, who was in eighth grade at the time, went down South to lend a hand after Katrina. Sean and his friend Koener recruited one other student and a couple of adults to accompany them to a small town outside Biloxi, MS. Sean told us that he worked in a food bank for several days which consisted mostly of unloading shipments from trucks and helping out a little bit with food preparation.
Sean is an Honor student who enjoys math and science. While he is leaning toward becoming an engineer like his brother, he also admitted that the thought of taking a semester off from college to be a ski bum in Colorado has a lot of appeal.
“It is really cool when the powder comes right up over your face,” Sean told us. “I will definitely ski all of my life.”
That comes as no surprise – he was born to ski.
While we spoke with Alan Moore about his son, he had to wear two different hats: father and coach. Alan has coached the Rangers ski team for almost 20 years and Sean is the last of four Moore kids to compete with their dad as coach. As a personal aside, we must mention that while growing up the name “Alan Moore” was synonymous in our household with skiing downhill at blistering speeds in a controlled manner that was right on the edge of craziness. Suffice it to say that Alan worked with Warren Miller making fantastic documentaries about skiing and appears in a couple of his films – like 1973’s “Winter People”.
Alan told us that he and his brother Steve skied for the first time when he was just seven years old. They found some wood skis of WWII vintage and would climb up a hill in Grand Rapids, strap them on and ski to the bottom, take them off to climb back up and repeat until exhausted. Alan and Cathy worked at Cannonsburg; one as an instructor and the other as a Ski Patrol and then changed roles when they moved out to Winter Park, CO after getting married. They passed their love of skiing along to all of their children. Allison, the oldest, coached the first ski team at Forest Hills Eastern before moving out of the area. Sean’s older brother Ryan was a member of the team that won a State Championship for the Rangers. Ryan, a mechanical engineer, gives back to the team by running the timing gates at their meets. Mari-Megan qualified for the State meet on her own as a Ranger and she attends MSU.
Alan agrees that Sean was destined to ski.
“We all have the ski gene – he was dragged into it whether he wanted to or not,” Alan joked. “Sean has been going to varsity ski meets since he was a baby.”
Speaking as Sean’s coach, Alan pointed out that he considers his son to be a good team leader. Sean is helpful at practice and the meets by setting up gates and seeing to other details. He is a team player who goes out of his way to help new kids fit into the rhythm of the team. Alan praised his son’s technical ability on the slopes and said he looks for a top ten finish from him this season. Last year he and Kyle Bloch took it upon themselves to put together a video portrait of the ski team. They used a helmet mounted camera in addition to another camera to record a couple of hours of video of the team. They also incorporated “thousands of pictures” given to them by parents and boiled it all down to a 15 minute video that was very popular with the team. (Shades of Warren Miller!)
The video connection to skiing became clear as we spoke with Sean. He is part of the FX Team at FHC – they are responsible for the daily announcements as well as running the lights and sound in the auditorium for various programs. Sean is called “The Fixer” because when something goes wrong, he is generally the one who can make it whole again.
Boy Scouting is another activity Sean has been involved in for most of his life. He started when he was in kindergarten and worked his way up with the goal in his mind of becoming an Eagle Scout before he made it to high school. Proving that he is steadfast in setting and meeting goals, Sean earned his Eagle Scout by the time he was 14.
“If my heart is into it, then I will get something done as soon as possible,” Sean explained.
Speaking as a dad, Alan related that Sean has “never been any problem – no terrible teenage problems to deal with”. He was very proud when Sean, who was in eighth grade at the time, went down South to lend a hand after Katrina. Sean and his friend Koener recruited one other student and a couple of adults to accompany them to a small town outside Biloxi, MS. Sean told us that he worked in a food bank for several days which consisted mostly of unloading shipments from trucks and helping out a little bit with food preparation.
Sean is an Honor student who enjoys math and science. While he is leaning toward becoming an engineer like his brother, he also admitted that the thought of taking a semester off from college to be a ski bum in Colorado has a lot of appeal.
“It is really cool when the powder comes right up over your face,” Sean told us. “I will definitely ski all of my life.”
That comes as no surprise – he was born to ski.
Comments