A cut above

Kennedy Moore figures she gets her height — she’s 6-foot-2 these days — from her grandfathers, both of whom stand 6-5.

Her mom was a bit of a hoopster, so there’s thanks to be given there, but Cynthia didn’t get very tall. “It skipped her and came to me,” Moore said.

That pretty reverse layup, which she first unleashed as a key freshman reserve in 2020-21?

“Papa Fairbank,” she said. “Chase Fairbank, our sophomore coach — his dad taught us that years ago. Shout out to him.”

The motor that makes her trade elbows, snare rebounds and a threat to score from anywhere on the floor? Well, that’s pretty much all Kennedy.

“She has drive,” says her dad, Erik Moore. “There’s no doubt her passion is basketball; it’s just in her. You could see that from her Rotary days.”

A volleyball and baseball player, Erik Moore recalled watching how aggressive and physical Kennedy was on the court as a youngster. It made him a little uncomfortable. “But I didn’t say anything,” he said. “Because I knew that’s what she needed to do, to excel.”

As Flathead gears up for its Crosstown games with Glacier Friday, Moore is more of a focal point for the Bravettes than ever. Which is saying something. 

By the end of her sophomore season, thanks to a finishing flourish that helped Flathead take third at the State AA tournament, Moore was the team’s leading scorer and rebounder.

Last year when Flathead advanced to the state championship game for the first time since 2001, she averaged 16.7 points and 8.3 rebounds. The season was full of tight finishes and highlights; Moore’s put-back at the buzzer that lifted the Bravettes over the Hellgate Knights last Jan. 28 is one example.

By the end, after a 48-43 loss to Billings West in the title game, Flathead had won 38 games and lost 11 over two seasons.

This year’s squad is 3-3, coming off a pair of 20-point outings and it’s hard to overstate the contributions of last year’s seniors like Maddy Moy and Avery Chouinard.

But Moore looks around and sees four more athletes — current seniors Quin Tennison, Harlie Roth, Celie VandenBosch and Chloe Converse — that she began playing alongside in fourth grade.

“I do miss all those girls and players,” she said of last year’s team. “But when I think of what I have at Flathead now, it’s awesome. I don’t really know how to explain it. I’m just so grateful for the whole program, seniors on down.”

“She wants what’s best for the team, and she knows we’re kind of growing and gaining experience,” first-year Bravettes coach Kaylee Fox said. “She’s really stepped into a leadership role for this program. She had some strong leaders the last couple years, and now she’s trying to make a difference in that way, and has.

“Those guys played together at the varsity level for a long time, and this group has not. They’ve played together, but not at that level. And they’re only going to get better.”

Moore isn’t sure where she’s going to college — the Montana Lady Griz have shown interest, as have many of the state’s Frontier Conference schools — or what she might study, though she’s taken a pair of electives from FVCC called Biomed 4 and Medical Terminology. 

“I’m waiting until the middle of spring to sign,” she said. “Right now it’s all up in the air. I’m talking to UM a little bit, but I might see a school that I just fall in love with. So I don’t know.”

She has a built-in (and mutual) fan base in Brody Thornsberry and his younger sister Addison; their mom Stephanie Mee and Erik Moore have been a couple for, “as long as I can remember,” Moore said. 

“Like 12 years. And they’re just awesome together. I have a half-brother (Carter Chell) who is 23; I grew up with him. I think it’s so fun to have them around, Brody and his friends, and Addison.”

“We call it a blended family,” said Erik. “I think we do it well.”

Cynthia Moore — she wore No. 14 in high school, by the way — remembers her daughter competing with Carter and Brody and anyone else who wanted to trade volleyball spikes or games of baseball burnout. Perhaps that’s another reason she has so much game: This season Kennedy Moore is averaging 12.5 points and 10 rebounds.

“We’re pretty confident in her when she gets the ball on the wing,” said Fox, a longtime Flathead assistant who took over as head coach when Sam Tudor stepped down after three seasons. “What’s unique about Kennedy is she can play any position on the floor, and score from any position.

“Kennedy is a good kid. She really is a nice kid, and is humble and we’re really lucky to have had her in this program the last four years.”

With the departure of Tudor and last year’s seniors, the program has had to go through a reset. Thanks in part to weather cancellations, the season is still very young. The Storm — the traveling team the seniors played on for five seasons — is back together, Cynthia Moore notes.

Ever positive, Kennedy Moore looks forward to what’s in store.

“All five of us seniors have played together since fourth grade, since Little Dribblers,” she said. “I couldn’t ask for anything better than to be playing with the girls.”

Fritz Neighbor can be reached at 758-4463 or at fneighbor@dailyinterlake.com.