Cathedral High School senior Anna Moore grew up around softball. She started playing at 8 years old, but was watching her older sister play even before then. The shortstop loves the game so much that she’s committed to playing next year as a freshman at Purdue University.
“What I love about softball are the teammates that have become my best friends along the way,” Moore says. “Softball is such a team sport, and winning a game without every player on the field wouldn’t be possible. It taught me to play for them rather than focus on how I do personally. Additionally, it is a game of failure, as batting .300 will allow you to become an all-American in college. This failure has taught me to be willing to try again even after disappointing results, and just to work harder so that I can be the best I can be.”
The student-athlete also participates in a variety of school activities. Moore is on the student athletic board, where other captains of the sports teams meet to discuss how to be the best leaders on their respective teams and improve their sports programs. She is also part of a group of missionaries who meet and pray together before school, and work on ways to spread their faith to others at school.
“I am also a part of Guardian Angels, a group of students at my school who have lost a parent or a sibling,” Moore says. “My father passed away during my freshman-year school season, and this group has allowed me to realize that I am not alone and that there are other people at my school dealing with the same things as me.”
Moore says she loves softball but her favorite sport will always be kickball. She believes it should be made a sport at the high school level, and her enthusiasm for it is infectious.
“It is such a competitive game and isn’t that physical,” Moore says. “I think almost any girl who played kickball in middle school would agree with me. It was also just a fun way for me to use my competitive nature in a sport outside of softball. It was fun because I didn’t feel much pressure playing kickball.”
Moore plans to major in engineering at Purdue. There are many engineers in her family, so it has always been a career she has considered. Moore has always loved math classes and is also very interested in physics. She says it seemed like a no-brainer to pick engineering as her major at Purdue since it has a strong engineering program.
“I’m most excited about being able to experience Purdue,” Moore says. “My mom, dad, sister and grandpa all went to Purdue and cannot speak more highly of it. They all had so much fun attending Purdue, and I am so excited to understand what they have told me about for all these years.”
