Even before Alonzo Moore arrived on campus in the fall of 2001, the Wisconsin men’s track team knew they were getting an athlete with limitless potential.
“When we signed him, he was a pretty good jumper,” said assistant coach Mark Napier, who coaches the Badgers’ field athletes. “But we signed him predicated on what we felt he could do. We took a chance because we saw some things and we signed him on scholarship. Typically for this team you wouldn’t sign someone for that much scholarship with the present marks that he had when we did sign him. Obviously we saw something and then it came out. Probably a couple of months later, he jumped the big ones, just like Paul [Hubbard] did.”
Napier believes that Moore’s strength and competitiveness give him an advantage over other jumpers and likens that strength to Badger volunteer assistant coach Jerome Romain, a former pupil of Napier’s at Blinn Junior College.
“His leg strength is one of the strongest I’ve ever seen or even heard of,” Napier said. “Some of his strength levels in the weight room are just unbelievable. Outside of the young man sitting here, Jerome Romain — he’s an Olympic triple jumper — Jerome is known as one of the strongest guys in the world, strength-wise for his legs as a jumper, and Alonzo is as high or higher already, and he’s still pretty young. Probably secondly would be his competitive attitude. He’s extremely competitive. We’re still working on pushing him all of the time, and as you mature as an athlete, you start to realize certain things.”
As a prep star at Phoebus High in Hampton, Va., Moore was tabbed as the best triple jumper in the country. What’s more, he was also widely regarded as a standout long jumper. Moore says that it was not only the athletics of Wisconsin that lured him to Madison, but also the academic side.
“I wanted to come for medicine, and the school was top five, I think the fourth,” Moore said. “And then looking at the track team, they had a good track team, and I came on my visit, everybody treated me nicely, and then the coaches came to see me. That really got me.”
As a freshman, Moore made an immediate impact in the triple jump. In his first collegiate outdoor meet, he recorded his best jump as a Badger at the Alabama relays, with a 53-9 mark that automatically qualified him for the NCAA Outdoor Championships. By the end of the year, he had placed fifth at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships and 19th at the NCAAs. Moore credits former Badger All-American Len Herring for teaching him some of the mental aspects of jumping.
“I’ve learned a lot, as far as keeping my composure when I get mad, although I didn’t jump like what I wanted to jump,” Moore said. “It’s a whole other view on jumping, from another perspective from another person from another place. We were like brothers to each other, so he treated me with a lot of respect. He showed me different things. One of the main things was to keep my patience, keep calm, don’t get angry if I don’t do good.”
After his scintillating freshman season, Moore took a redshirt for the 2002-03 campaign.
“Sometimes, you redshirt somebody because you want to hold them for the freshman year even though they’re good, like a Len Herring was redshirted his freshman year with the idea that he would jump well at nationals as a true freshman but he would be able to place as a redshirt freshman, which he did — he was third or fourth,” Napier said. “Alonzo (Moore), it’s the same kind of thing, yet a little bit different. We went ahead and competed him, because one, the team needed it; and two, he was ready mentally to do that. So, obviously, that was smart. At some point you’re always looking down the road and developing somebody for five years. So, somebody’s going to redshirt at some point. If it’s not their first year, it’s most likely their second year.”
Injury also contributed to Moore’s decision to redshirt.
“Last year, I got in an accident that kept me out,” Moore said. “With the accident, I missed a couple of months of classes, but I tried to finish anyway, but I didn’t do good. I had to drop classes, so my GPA wasn’t where it was supposed to be, so taking it to the Big Ten and saying what my reasons were, we just said I’d sit out and train, because I had a strained MCL in my right knee and my shoulder was messed up.”
Moore returned to active competition this fall and captured the Big Ten Indoor triple jump title. He then moved on to the NCAA Indoor Championships and placed 11th. Looking to claim the Big Ten outdoor title, Moore will have all he can handle in Indiana’s Aarik Wilson.
“Aarik, as a freshman in college, was second in the nation, so Alonzo hasn’t jumped anywhere near Aarik’s distances,” Napier said. “I think he has the potential to do that, but there’s a difference between having potential and actually doing it. So, I would say that in everyone’s mind Aarik is the favorite, and until Alonzo starts putting the jumps out there like he has on a consistent basis, it’s just small talk to say that Alonzo’s the guy to beat. He is not the guy to beat. The guy to beat is Aarik.”
Moore hopes to build on his indoor success and says that placing in the top five and earning All-American honors are his national goals for the outdoor season. Napier says he is still waiting for Moore and fellow Badger Rick Bellford to step it up on the national scene.
“Potential-wise, both of those guys, Rick and Alonzo, both have a lot of potential that we just haven’t seen yet,” Napier said. “They’re still jumping at a conference level, and I’m waiting to see them jump consistently at a national level. And they’re ready to do that physically, and now I think it’s a lot the mental step.”
Looking beyond this year, Moore says competing in the Olympic Games is his ultimate goal.
“My future goal, when I first started track…was to go to the 2004 Olympics,” Moore said. “I have a possibility to make it and I don’t, but even if I don’t make it, I want to at least make it to the trials. But if I don’t make it to the Olympics, definitely in the future, I want to make a future Olympics.”
