Moore pumped about coaching in Manville

New head soccer coach very optimistic

By: John Beisser
   
   Tim Moore, the Manville High first-year varsity boys’ soccer coach, has traveled a somewhat circuitous route to the school district. Now that he’s here, he thinks he might have found a home for life.
   "I’d like to teach and coach in Manville for the next 20 years, if they’ll have me that long," Moore said. "I really enjoy the school district here. I love teaching in a smaller school setting, where you can get the chance one day know all of the kids. This is my second year and I know more than half the kids by name. Next year, I’ll know about 75 percent of the kids’ names and the following year, I will know 100 percent. I think that’s great.
   "Manville kids are so nice," he continued. "I could be down at the mall, or out getting something to eat, and they’ll come up to you and say hi."
   The 33-year old Moore, a native of the Pittsburgh, Pa. suburb of Bethel Park, began his teaching career on the island of Oahu, Hawaii of all places, following his 1997 graduation from Edinboro (Pa.) College.
   "A recruiter from Hawaii came by campus and told me of the opportunity to teach there and I was like, ‘I’m 24 years old, I’m single, this seems like it could be a lot of fun,’" he said. "It was like a vacation right out of college, an opportunity I just could not pass up.
   "It was a great first year out of college. Hawaii is where I kind of learned how to teach."
   Indeed, the one-year experience was fun. It featured lots of things to do and see on weekends and, of course, the weather was idyllic. So, why in the world would a 24-year old single male leave paradise to come and work in New Jersey?
   "It was a girl," Moore said with a laugh. "It’s always about a girl, huh? Yeah, I fell in love with a girl from Edinboro, who was also in the teaching program in Hawaii and she had an opportunity to teach in New Jersey. So, I followed her back. We ended up breaking up and I fell in love with another girl who I married."
   His career, which began in Hawaii, then took him to the Bridgewater school district, where he stayed for three years. Moore then spent one year teaching in the Hillsborough district, followed by two years in the Piscataway district, before he landed in Manville in 2006.
   Prior to coming to Manville, all of Moore’s teaching experience came at the middle school level and in large school systems. He says he likes teaching in high school better, adding that "those were all tremendous experiences for me but I prefer a smaller school where, like I said, you get to know everybody," he said.
   Moore’s wife Stephanie teaches in an elementary school in her native Hillsborough and that is where they live and plan to raise a family.
   "We’re here to stay," Moore said. "We’re not going anywhere. It would be great if Manville could be the last stop on the train ride of my teaching and coaching career."