After Untimely Death of Mom, Basketball Player Says There's One Gym She Always Feels Her Presence In
When high school basketball star Chloe Moore-McNeil led her team to the 2018 Class A state championship last March, her mom was there.
Chloe, 16, plays on the Lady Yellowjackets girls basketball team at Greenfield School in Greenfield, Tennessee.
On June 5, 2018, Chloe turned 16 years old and spent the day in South Carolina celebrating her cousin’s graduation. That same day, her mother, 41-year-old Corenda Moore, died unexpectedly at their home in Tennessee.
“I didn’t cry because I didn’t believe it,” Chloe The Jackson Sun. “I thought it was a lie, but that 10-hour drive back home, it kicked in. It hurt me because my sisters were there, and I hurt for them.”
Corenda Moore died from an enlarged heart and was found by her husband, Tory McNeil, with their 8-month-old baby girl sleeping on her chest.
Chloe returned to the basketball court determined to regain some sense of normalcy in her life after her mother’s untimely death.
“Basketball is her refuge,” said Chloe’s coach, Willie Trevathan.
“In the days after everything happened in the summer, she couldn’t wait to get back in the gym and back with her teammates, to get some normalcy and get away from the pain that she was experiencing.”
This March, the Lady Yellowjackets are primed to defend their 2018 championship. Chloe has also been nominated as a Miss Basketball finalist, an award reserved for the best girls basketball player in the state.
“I think about my mom often,” Chloe said. “Every day that I step into the (Greenfield) gym, I see my aunt’s retired jersey with the same number that my mother wore. If we go back again or anything good happens, I know that she is here.”
Chloe has used basketball to help heal her pain, focusing on playing her best as a way to honor her mom.
“I made it my mindset that everything I do from here is for her,” Chloe said. “That is how I took it. When I take on the bad, I think of the state championship last year and her being here.”
This year’s state championship tournament starts on March 6 at Middle Tennessee State University’s Murphy Center.
This time, Chloe’s mom will not be there in person, but she will certainly be on her daughter’s mind.
“It would be a lot of emotion,” Chloe said, thinking of winning another championship. “If we win, she will be the first one that I think of.”
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