Golden Valley’s Stephanie Moore has great appreciation for game

Growing up, Stephanie Moore experimented with a variety of sports and activities. She tried ballet, ice skating and soccer, but they didn’t stick.

Basketball became her sport and her passion.

She wasn’t alone, as both her sisters also fell in love with basketball. Older sister Valerie played at Modesto Christian and went on to play at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga.

Stephanie, who played the first two years of her high school career at Modesto Christian, spent her last two seasons with her younger sister Delia at Golden Valley.

“I did everything in middle school, but basketball was just the sport that stuck with us,” Stephanie said. “For me, soccer was just too big of a field. Everything is right there with basketball. We all just fell in love with basketball.”

Stephanie Moore’s passion for the game shows in her style of play. The Golden Valley senior guard plays all-out at all times and has led the Cougars to back-to-back Central California Conference championships.

The two-time CCC MVP is the Merced Sun-Star Girls Basketball Player of the Year for the second year in a row.

“Sometimes you get a kid – even ones who are talented basketball players – when practice is over, they get their stuff and they’re gone out of the gym,” Golden Valley coach Matt Thissen said. “Stephanie will stay and keep shooting or working on her ballhandling until we have to tell her we need to go. It’s definitely a different level of love for the game and different level of appreciation for the game.

“I’ve honestly never had another player who worked so hard to get better.”

Moore approached her offseason after her junior season with a goal to improve certain areas of her game. The focus was on improving her three-point shots. She wanted to become more of a threat from outside to force defenses to come out on her, which would open up lanes to the basket.

“I wanted to be a triple threat,” Moore said. “I also worked on shooting off the dribble with my pull-up jumpers. I also wanted to make a bigger effort to jump-stop.”

The offseason work paid off as she averaged 18.0 points, 7.1 rebounds, 4.2 steals and 3.3 assists this season. Moore finished her high school career with 1,327 points. Even more impressive is her 4.3 grade-point average, No. 1 in her class.

After winning a state championship at Modesto Christian as a sophomore, Moore helped turn around a Golden Valley team that was 21-47 over the previous three years.

With Moore leading the way, the Cougars have won their back-to-back conference titles by going 10-0 each season. Since Moore joined the team last year after sitting out 30 days after transferring, Golden Valley is 38-6.

Moore brought confidence to the program.

Thissen remembers playing Merced without Moore in December 2014 during Golden Valley’s tournament. The Cougars let a big lead slip away and lost a close game.

“After the game, as we’re shaking hands, she tells me, ‘That doesn’t happen when I’m playing,’ ” Thissen said. “She wasn’t trying to be cocky. It’s just a different mindset. She’s just unique.”

Thissen says people see Moore’s talent but not her leadership.

“She really inspires her teammates,” Thissen said. “They watch her and learn from her. It makes a big difference. A lot of players understand what it takes to be a good player by watching her the last two years.”

When Moore came to Golden Valley, she was unaware of the program’s struggles. She came in expecting to win.

“My mindset was we’re going to win league,” she said. “I didn’t look at Golden Valley’s record. I didn’t know what they had done. Now, I’m so proud of what we’ve done as a group. We didn’t just win league two years in a row, we went undefeated.

“We’ve grown up so much. I’ve watched our team grow over the summer. Not just the skill, but our confidence. I’m really proud to see it.”

This story was originally published April 7, 2016 at 5:59 PM with the headline "Golden Valley’s Stephanie Moore has great appreciation for game."