Norman senior nose guard CJ Moore’s talents will be needed if the Tigers hope to keep their playoff run alive.

“I play a gap responsibility position, and if I am able to plug up that gap, it lets the linebackers get through the line and get the tackle,” Moore explained. “I help the team to be successful by doing my job and being coachable by doing what they need me to do.”

Moore considers his “coachability” one of his biggest assets to the team. Playing football, he said, lends the opportunity to express himself. He started playing in the third grade.

“It started off with playing flag football, because my mom said I was a ‘trouble-maker,’ so she wanted me to play football to get some of my anger out,” Moore said, but I wasn’t so sure about it until I got into tackle football my fourth-grade year. That’s when I fell in love with the sport because I was able to hit kids and get away with it, but ever since then, it has impacted my life with discipline and hard work and football is like another half of me.”

Moore credits his mother’s persistence in his sticking football out.

“My biggest role model is my mom, because she always knows how to bring job and courage to people around her and impacts their lives in certain ways, and that motivates me to be a better person in life, to be just like her,” Moore said. “Ever since I started football, my mom has been to almost every game and cheered for me even if I was having a bad game. She is my No. 1 fan.”

Outside of football, Moore enjoys spending time with his teammates, friends and family. He games sometimes, and others he thinks about his future.