In his final run with Belmont, with the combination of his sharp shooting, scoring ability, speed, and vertical, Kendall Moore proved to be one of the best players in Dayton’s stacked 2019 class.

Moore showed up big throughout his final season, including scoring 31 of his team’s 46 points against a state ranked, Taft. He also had multiple colleges attend his Beechcroft game in Columbus, including Cleveland State, Walsh, and Capital University.

His elite talent not only could be seen by the area’s spectators, but also by college scouts. Moore went on frequent visits throughout his high school career to division two and division three schools, including to Point Park, Quincy, Heidelberg, and Thomas Moore.

The results of his hard work was not only big time performances and college interest, but also being recognized with the honor of conference player of the year.

But, in the end, Moore chose to go the DII route and spend his freshman year in LaPorte County, Indiana. Kendall Moore had committed to the Purdue Northwest Pride.

Although it might seem Moore had a ton of options to choose from heading into college, he didn’t. “Recruiting was pretty tough for me. I was stuck . . . which didn’t help my anxiety . . . They always went with the other option.”

This brings up the low-profile problem in high school sports of negative mental health effects on players, stemming from balancing the work load of being a student, athlete, and other factors like maintaining a job or one’s at home life. Unfortunately, the majority of these athletes are afraid to seek the correct help.

The Purdue Northwest program hasn’t seen much success these recent years, going 32-83 over the span of the last four seasons, including a 2-26 season three years ago.

This recent season, with Moore tagging along, the Pride went 10-18, including a loss against Saginaw Valley State, 87-74. Saginaw was led by Trotwood-Madison alumni, Myles Belyeu, who punched in 32 points and 8 rebounds on just under 50% shooting.

The Pride are looking to turn the school around, as they haven’t had a winning season since becoming a D2 program in 2016. After the unfortunate passing of their former head coach, Matt Bush, they went young by hiring Coach Boomer Roberts for the 2018-2019 season.

Roberts’ resume already showed that he had the ability to turn programs in full 360’s, engineering the largest three-year turnaround at any level of college basketball from 2014 to 2017, bringing Trinity International University from five wins in 2014 to 30 in the 2016-2017 season.

You might think with Purdue’s losing record and attempting to find “their guys” with a rebuilding program, Moore would’ve seen the floor a frequent amount. But no, in his first season at Northwest, Moore unfortunately didn’t see the floor for a single second.

“I red-shirted this year . . . partially because I broke my ankle going into the school year. . . plus being a freshman with two juniors and a fifth year senior at the same position didn’t help.”

In result, the Dayton City League’s 2019 Player Of The Year is currently looking for a new home, by entering the transfer portal for his second season.

Recently this off-season, Moore worked out and participated in invite only open gyms with other Dayton natives who’re now playing at the collegiate level. Moore battled alongside and against some of the city’s best, including Trey Landers (Dayton | Wayne), P’hariz Watkins (Heidelberg | CJ), D’Mitrik Trice (Wisconsin | Wayne), & Andre Yates (Cleveland St | Dunbar).

The former Huber Heights Wayne stand out and James Madison guard, Deshon Parker, recently made the decision to transfer to Appalachian State in North Carolina. The division one prospect had this to say after seeing Kendall Moore in action this Summer . . .

“He’s a very quick and poised guard . . . can score and get others involved. You can tell he loves the game and wants to be great at it. Whichever school decides to take a chance on him . . . he will NOT disappoint! I believe he will find the right fit soon.”

So far, the former Belmont guard has seen interest from Wright State, Corbin, and Capital, along with a couple other JUCO’s and NAIA schools.

Hopefully, we can see Moore make the jump from the division two, to the division one level for this upcoming season. Kendall Moore is listed as 6’0″ foot and 185lbs. He’s a red-shirt freshman withholding a 3.1 GPA. His contact information is listed below. Help Moore find a home . . .

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