Torrey Pines Lady Falcons Softball

Moore completed the 2012 season with 311 career wins, while leading the Falcons to the Palomar League title, the CIF San Diego Section Division I championship and a school-record 31 victories.

The seniors on the 2012 team finished their tenure at Torrey Pines with 104 total victories and three league titles in their four years under Moore.

But only one of Torrey Pines' accolades truly mattered to Moore, who just completed his 16th season at the helm.

"The most important thing was winning that CIF title," said Moore, the North County Times Girls Coach of the Year for the 2011-12 school year. "That's the first time in school history that we won the CIF title. This school has been open since 1974, and we have a lot of CIF titles, but none of them were in softball.

"The first CIF title is the biggest and most important one."

Getting that title didn't come without some complications for Moore, who was faced with an issue that any softball coach would probably embrace ---- too much quality pitching.

Moore's roster contained three outstanding pitchers ---- Rachel Nasland, Taylor Lee and Lauren Hynes ---- and finding a way to keep all of them involved proved to be a challenge.

"Nasland was coming off of an injury so we were slower with her at the beginning," Moore said. "Rachel was hurt most of her sophomore year, so Lee and Hynes both pitched a lot as juniors, but their innings went down this year. Especially Hynes, who threw maybe 50 innings all season long, but she played a lot at first base and cleaned up."

Hynes, who was awarded league pitcher of the year honors after her freshman season, did not appear bothered by her coach's decision to change her role on the team in her final season.

"Coach always put the best team out there that was going to win," said Hynes, who will attend Boston University in the fall. "So freshman year that was me pitching, but this year that was me playing first and hitting.

"As long as I was still playing and able to contribute to the success of this team, that's all that really mattered to me."

But that wasn't the only challenge for Moore. He is also the head coach of the Torrey Pines junior varsity boys basketball team and an assistant coach on the varsity boys basketball team. Going from coaching the boys teams to a girls team was no simple task as Moore realized he had to alter his coaching methods.

"Girls are emotional," he said. "I think at first I was probably too hard with the girls because I treated them like the boys, but there's a big difference there that you really got to balance.

"I learned that you have to calm down quite a bit with the girls, but I found that once you get through and you see the end line, the common goal, the girls will do anything for you. They will run through walls for you."

The coach's efforts had not gone unnoticed by his players.

"He has a lot of passion for the game and for our team," Nasland said. "I know he's always there for me, and it helps cause I know I'm playing for someone who's always got my back and will fight for me."

Said Lee: "He's always here, and he makes us want to work harder because we can see that this is really important to him with how hard he works on the field and with our scouting reports; it just helps to keep us motivated and to keep us going."

Moore also enjoyed quite a bit of success with the boys basketball teams this season. The junior varsity finished 26-2 and won the Palomar League, while the varsity won a CIF San Diego Section title.

"I got two rings in one year," said Moore with a smile. "I am really blessed."