Moore named state’s Gatorade football player of the year

Avon’s Colin Moore

For the first time ever, an Avon High football player has been selected as the state player of the year. Senior running back and defensive back Colin Moore has been selected as the Gatorade football player of the year from Connecticut.

The award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field. For the second straight season, Moore ran for over 2,000 yards and he helped Avon earn a perfect 10-0 regular season campaign and a Pequot Uncas Division championship this fall.

In the classroom, Moore has maintained a B average and following the 2011 Halloween snowstorm that cut power to hundreds of thousands of people across Connecticut, Moore volunteered as an assistant to a local electrician and did what he could to help restore power to homes. He has also donated his time as a peer mentor to intellectually and physically challenged students and also serves as a youth counselor.

Avon’s Colin Moore

Moore is now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Football Player of the Year award. Gatorade’s Player of the Year program recognizes one winner in each state in 12 sports along with a national winner.

“Colin Moore is a tremendous football player,” said Paul Philippon, head coach of Canton High. “He’s tough, consistent and relentless — he produces in every game. He could have played in any era.”

Moore’s achievements on the football field are staggering. He finished his career with 5,217 yards and 64 rushing touchdowns over four years. Before this season began, only 12 runners in state history had run for over 5,000 yards in a career. He has run for more yards and scored more points (436) than anyone in Avon High’s football program. His 436 career points will probably leave him among the top 15 all-time in state history.

He ran for 2,144 yards and 30 TDs this season for the Falcons, just a few yards off his school-record 2,206 yard effort and the 28 TDs he scored in 10 games as a junior in 2011. As a junior, he played quarterback most of the year, too, completing 22 of 61 passes for 332 yards and 5 TDs. He had a school-record 19 two-point conversion runs.

Moore simply did whatever was asked of him on the football field.

“I admire so much about Colin,” said Brett Quinion, who coached Moore for four years at Avon High. “He has such extreme focus.  He takes in every coaching point on both sides of the ball and when he combines his football IQ with his outstanding ability he accomplishes great things.

“He is such a fluid athlete. He has great quickness as well as speed and strength,” Quinion said. “Above all, I admire him as a man.  He has always been about the team and whatever it takes to outscore the opponents.”

Moore is still undecided about where he will attend college but he is leaning toward attending Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, which wants Moore to play on its men’s lacrosse team.

Moore has been playing lacrosse for three years at Avon and has been playing the sport since he was in fifth grade. Last spring, he scored over 40 goals from his midfield position leading the Falcons to the NCCC Tournament championship and to the Class L semifinals before Avon was eliminated.

“They can’t wrap you up in lacrosse, which is nice,” said the 5-foot-11, 185-pound Moore. “There aren’t as many big guys in lacrosse.”

Moore began playing football as a third grade student in Texas. His family lived outside of Dallas before arriving in Avon at the end of eighth grade. He made the Avon High varsity as a freshman in 2009 and got some carries behind All-State running back Ross McDonald. That was the season when Avon went 10-0 and lost to eventual state champion Berlin in the Class L semifinals at Muzzy Field.

Moore backed up McDonald again as a sophomore, rushing for nearly 700 yards and 10 TDs, before taking over the starting running back job in 2011.

Moore has been a part of a special four years of Avon football. In that time, Avon won three Pequot Uncas Division championships, had two undefeated regular seasons (10-0) and qualified for the Class L playoffs twice. The Falcons are 35-7 over the last four seasons.

What will Moore miss most about football? “Everything,” he said. “I’m going to miss it all. I’m going to remember all of the kids I have played with over the years and coach Quinion. These are four years that I’ll remember forever.”

Recent winners of the Gatorade state football player of the year award from Connecticut include Vikings center John Sullivan of Greenwich (2003),  Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez of Bristol Central (2004) and former Masuk QB Casey Cochran, who is playing at the University of Connecticut.