New book about legendary football coach, Celina Record

Forthcoming book examines life of longtime Celina football coach Lisa Ferguson, lferguson@starlocalmedia.com Mar 18, 2016 Anyone who has followed high school football in North Texas over the last half century likely knows the name G.A. Moore. Count Ed Housewright among them. A former longtime reporter for the Dallas Morning News, Housewright recalls reading newspaper headlines during the late 1980s through the early 2000s, when Celina High School’s football team, under Moore’s direction, won five state championships. “The stories sort of alluded to him being a mentor and a father figure (to the players) and a really special person beyond just winning games,” he recalled, “so I guess in the back of my mind, it just lodged there years ago. I never consciously thought, ‘I’ll write a book about this guy.’” Nevertheless, Housewright has done just that. “Beyond Just Win: A Profile of G.A. Moore” is set to be released Aug. 1 by Blue River Press. The book is available for preorder through several online retailers. Moore’s high school coaching career dates back to the early 1960s. He spent a year in Bryson before heading back to his hometown of Pilot Point in 1963, where he had played football as a teenager. It would be the first of three stints he’d spend as the head of Pilot Point’s football program, which won a pair of state championships under his 20-year, nonconsecutive watch there. In 1972, Moore began the first of two tenures (totaling 19 years) as Celina High School’s head football coach. During his first five-year run, the Bobcats won the 1974 state championship. He left the school after the 1976 season. Following nine years in Pilot Point and two in Sherman, Moore returned to Celina in 1988. In the ensuing 14 years, the team collected five more state championships. Moore departed Celina High School after the 2001 season, following a 57-game winning streak. He returned to Pilot Point in 2002 to coach for three more years before retiring in 2004. After staying away from football for four years, Moore again began coaching in Aubrey in 2009. He led that team for three seasons before retiring for good in 2011. During his 45-year coaching career, Moore, who in 2012 was inducted into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame, amassed 423 wins, 97 losses and nine ties. Still, Housewright said, what is most impressive about Moore’s career isn’t his championship-laden resume. “What he accomplished in winning games is great, but what he accomplished in building young men” had a greater impact, he said. Housewright, an East Dallas resident who now manages commercial real-estate properties, has previously authored five books – three of them about the Dallas Cowboys. He also maintains a blog called Single Dad House (singledadhouse.com) about his life as a twice-divorced father. He said he first contacted Moore in 2012 to learn whether he was willing to become the subject of a book. The pair chatted over coffee at the McDonald’s restaurant on Preston Road in Celina. “I thought he might have a big head from winning all these championships, but he’s very down to earth, very humble,” Housewright said. “Here’s a man that coached at small schools. … He didn’t have a lot of talent year to year. He never sent a lot of athletes to college on scholarships. He didn’t run a football factory that produced college and professional players. He just took the kids he had and through coaching and leadership just really got them to perform better than their natural abilities were.” Housewright said he didn’t intend to spend three years researching and writing the 224-page book, but ended up interviewing about a hundred people – mostly members of Moore’s family, as well as some of his former coaching staff and players – around the state about the coach and his legacy. “I could tell [Moore] had a special relationship with these kids and the parents and the community,” he said, “and the more interviews I did, the more I became sure that this is really not just a football book.” Among those the author spoke with were former Celina High School quarterback Adam Herrin and linebacker Ryan Conner, as well as former Head Coach Butch Ford and current Head Coach Bill Elliott. Elliot, who played for Moore from 1982 through 1986 in Pilot Point, calls the book “a great honor” for the coach. “Throughout his career, the impact he had on kids and the influence he had on them – taking young boys and developing them into men,” he said. “To kind of get a caption of his life and what he stood for and what he believed in and the way he influenced kids, I think it’s a great thing for people to see and understand.” Housewright said during many of the interviews he conducted, “I kept hearing that story over and over: The (former) players would say, `You know, he would take us and make us better than we thought we could be.’ “So [Moore] had a secret as far as leadership and motivation and just concern about the kids. They sensed that he cared about them so much they that were motivated to perform well and to act right off the field,” he said. The author also met numerous times with Moore, and said the two became friendly. “He’s treated us really great,” 77-year-old Moore said of Housewright, adding that he is “a little flattered” to have the story of his coaching career told. “The things that happened to me were all based on performances by other people, really,” Moore said, crediting his coaching staffs and players for his success. “Everything just kind of fell into place and I’m just very, very blessed. It’s just been a lot better than I deserved.” These days Moore, a lifelong rancher, still lives on the same land in nearby Mustang that his family has owned since the early 1900s. On Sundays, he preaches to the small congregation at Mustang Baptist Church in Pilot Point. “He preaches the way he coached,” said Housewright, who sat in on several of Moore’s sermons while researching the book. “He has the same compassion for the church members that he did for the players, and he knows how to rally people toward a common goal. … I think it’s inspiring.” While “Beyond Just Win” will surely appeal to high school football fans throughout North Texas, Housewright said he is confident Moore’s story will also resonate with others who read it. “This is a book about leadership and character and instilling values in kids, and so I think that will sell it to a broader audience,” he said. “You don’t have to care anything about football to be interested in G.A. Moore.”