* * * *<\/p>\n
When Moore was born, he was showered with soccer jerseys, maybe three or four uniforms, at least one a complete blue-green-and-yellow Brazilian kit. That, of course, was the sport he was destined to play, given that his mother Vanusa was from Brazil.<\/p>\n
They put him into soccer at the local community center, an arena that was attached to a hockey rink. But instead of diving wholeheartedly into the sport, Moore kept running away. It happened so many times that Vanusa joined the coaching staff, as an assistant, so she could focus on tracking down her son and returning him to his rightful place.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would run away and would go and watch the other people play hockey,\u201d Vanusa said. \u201cWe were not very familiar with it. It was very hilarious because we didn\u2019t have the vocabulary \u2013 he was little, probably around three or so \u2013 and he would say, \u2018I want to play that.\u2019 And it\u2019s like, \u2018No, honey, let\u2019s go back to soccer.\u2019 It happened every single time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moore wanted no part of the sport. He wanted no part of skiing, either, the sport his father grew up with. Finally, they gave in. It was hockey for him, a sport he was unlikely to have even tried had the family not found its way to the Greater Toronto Area.<\/p>\n
And that happened by a quirk of fate, when Vanusa Moore found out she was pregnant while the family was on a one-year work assignment in Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I had a problem with Tim Horton\u2019s, like I couldn\u2019t smell Tim Horton\u2019s, I was always sick,\u201d she said. \u201cI told the doctor maybe I have an allergy.\u201d<\/p>\n
She did not have an allergy.<\/p>\n
Moving while pregnant \u2013 and very sick \u2013 or moving with a baby seemed too daunting to even attempt and, so, they stayed. Mississauga was an area that reminded them of Switzerland, of Geneva, where they had previously been, and it started to feel like home.<\/p>\n
For Moore, so did hockey. At six, he found his way to a coach, Chris Stevenson, who nurtured him and his passion, even as his family learned along with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not huge on kids playing up, but seeing the talent that he had, it was a no-brainer for me,\u201d Stevenson said. \u201cAnd then meeting him, even at six years old, he\u2019s looking you in the eye, he’s shaking your hand. \u2026 He\u2019s literally the most coachable kid I\u2019ve ever met in my life. The more you pushed him, the more you got out of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stevenson recalled a moment when Moore was 12 years old, when he was talking the players through one of his systems and Moore stopped him, saying, \u201cCoach, that\u2019s not usually what you tell us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that moment, you could realize how much he paid attention and how much his attention to detail was on point, because 90 percent of the other kids just nod their heads, like oh, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, sounds good,\u201d Stevenson said. \u201cWhere he was really like, are you sure that\u2019s what you want? And that really opened my eyes on how much he was listening. Those are the kids you want to coach.\u201d<\/p>\n