“I wrote it down,” Moore said. “I talked about it, I saw it before it happened. And there’s this power in that.”
Now that Moore was headed to the NCAA women’s tournament, her mother knew these were moments she would want to remember one day — even if the demands of the job might not leave enough time.
“I used to journal a lot of my life,” Moore said. “Since I become became a head coach, it’s a little more inconsistent.”
But her mom’s words were a much-needed nudge.
“I really took that in and it made a lot of sense to me,” Moore said. “We worked so much for this moment and I don’t want to forget what this moment feels like and all that I am feeling in it. So I took some time to really kind of reflect a little bit and put my feelings and thoughts into words on paper. I’m sure more of that will come after the season is over.”
This is a moment Moore’s been working toward long before she arrived at Harvard in 2022.
When Moore was still on her first assistant coaching job at Creighton in 2012, there were 71 Black Division 1 women’s basketball coaches, 47 of them were women, according to the NCAA. That group would grow to 80 Black coaches last season, with Moore climbing the ranks to join them.
The list of Black coaches who led their programs to the NCAA women’s tournament was shorter. And along Moore’s way, those were the names that showed Moore she could one day do the same.
“That’s a list that I’ve aspired to be on throughout my coaching career,” Moore said. “To have my name in the mix of the Dawn Staleys, the Kenny Brookses, and the Niele Iveys and all of that, that’s just a dream come true.”
Moore is now among those names. When the 10th-seeded Crimson take on seventh-seeded Michigan State on Saturday, she will be one of 16 Black coaches on the sideline leading women’s programs in March Madness.
“It just goes to show you, you can accomplish whatever you want to in life,” Moore said. “You’ve just got to go for it and make sure you’re ready when that moment finds you.”
The moment found Moore in 2022 after she helped Michigan make a run to the Elite Eight as an assistant under Kim Barnes Arico. Moore arrived eager to lead the Crimson back to the tournament for the first time since 2007. Even after winning the Ivy League tournament and getting to the dance this season, a three-year wait felt too long to her. But in that time, she’s cultivated not only a winning-environment following in the footsteps of Kathy Delaney-Smith, who took the Crimson to the tournament six times in 39 seasons, but she carved out a space where space where identity on and off the court were equally important.
Former Crimson president Claudine Gay has been a supporter of the program and Moore since Moore arrived. In an e-mail, Gay said the Crimson are lucky to have Moore on the sidelines.
“She is a tremendous coach and program leader, which is manifest each time the team takes the court and displays its blend of fierce competitiveness, genuine camaraderie, and seamless communication,” Gay said. “Carrie has nurtured all of that — plus a palpable joy — to remarkable effect. She is an exemplary Ivy coach, not just for the wins but for the team’s culture.”
Harmoni Turner, the Ivy League player of the year and the centerpiece of the Crimson’s offense, wasn’t recruited by Moore, but they immediately developed a relationship born out of the pursuit of winning that blossomed into something much larger. She could see herself in Moore, who played four seasons as a guard at Western Michigan. Their bond grew tighter over three years together.
“It means a lot,” Turner said. “Representation matters and I feel like coach Moore, what she has done in just the three years she’s been here, you’ll think she’s been here for 20. I’m incredibly grateful for her. I’m thankful for her because she’s done so much, not just for myself, not just for the team, but for the Black community, for women and for a lot of minorities. That’s the best role model you can ask for.
“The beauty in that is that she’s not finished,” Turner said. “She has a lot more to give, and I can’t wait for everyone to see that.”
Abigail Wright, who was a part of Moore’s first recruiting class, echoed the sentiments.
“I think everyone deserves to have a coach more in their life, and I hope that they get to you at some point,” Wright said. ”She’s a complete game-changer and in women’s basketball, but specifically in all of our lives, I think that she has changed it in more ways than one.”
When Moore eventually sits down to journal, she’ll have in mind the mantra she set for her team this season: “Believe it.”
“I felt like that was the most important thing,” she said. “Not coaching basketball, but coaching them to really see it and believe that we could do what’s happening right now, because if they did it, if they didn’t see it, and if they didn’t really believe that it could happen, there’s no way that we could do what we’re doing right now.”
Julian Benbow can be reached at [email protected].
