NFL’s Sio Moore returns to Wake County to host football camp

Indianapolis Colts linebacker Snorsio “Sio” Moore, a 2008 Apex High graduate, has come home to thank the village of supporters who helped get him to the NFL.

He is hosting the first Reach Four Moore Camp, a free one-day football camp, Saturday, July 16, in Holly Springs. The camp also will feature lessons on leadership, accountability, individuality, adversity and bullying. About 10 National Football League players are expected to attend.

“It’s something that I wanted to bring back home to my community, and actually being more than just an athlete,” said Sio Moore (pronounced SEE-o). “I wanted to be somebody to actually give back to my community and the youth.”

Organizers hope the camp will be an annual event. This year’s camp will be 9:15 a.m. to 7:15 p.m. at the North Main Athletic Complex at 1151 N. Main Street in Holly Springs. Children from second through 12th grade are eligible to attend. Nearly 300 already are registered, and spaces are still available.

“I think it’s terrific,” Holly Springs Mayor Dick Sears said. “Some of the funds that are generated from this will go to the anti-bullying campaign, and Sio and a few other people will be talking about how important anti-bullying is.”

After Moore, 26, graduated from Apex High, he went to the University of Connecticut on a full scholarship before being drafted by the Oakland Raiders in 2013. He played in California until he was traded to the Indianapolis Colts in September 2015.

But Moore faced struggles, including some academic ones, that he had to overcome before he was able to succeed in the NFL.

“His actions didn’t line up with his goals,” said Richard Young, Moore’s assistant coach at Apex High. “He put his energy toward things that just weren’t as important. He was tardy to class. His grades were pretty good but could have been better. His work ethic was better on the field than in the classroom.”

Role models like his coaches, mother, sister, grandmother and a neighbor named Stephanie Bourne helped him overcome these challenges in order to earn a scholarship from the University of Connecticut.

“I’m a village kid,” Moore said. “I’ve got moms. I’ve got father figures in my life that extend outside my true blood family.”

His sister, in particular, made him go to the library every day after school and wash dishes every night. Once when he didn’t wash the dishes before bed, she put them in the bed with him.

He “woke up with pots, pans, plates, everything,” he recalls.

Years later, Moore said it was that guidance that helped him become a better man.

“They all had their own different methods of helping me, but what they all did in its totality it helped me grow as a man, helped me to see it takes a lot to be a good man, and that’s the blessing I have by being a village kid.”

Once he was on his own in college, he began to return to old habits and was put on academic probation. But he continued to find people who believed in him and pushed him to improve.

Moore remembers his coach during his sophomore year of college not letting him play because he didn’t trust him.

“How can I trust you to get on this field and make plays for me for four quarters if you don’t go to class on time?” Moore recalled him saying.

“It clicked right there,” Moore said. I’ve got to apply myself on and off the field. I’ve got to care about my life the same way I care about football.”

Moore said he hopes this Reach Four Moore Camp provides the same guidance to children that he was given when he was young.

“I’m not just a football player,” Moore said. “I play football, but it’s not who I am. I’ve learned a lot from football but it still doesn’t just define me, and there’s a lot of kids who need true guidance, who could use it, who want it and who just want something to believe in.”

Donations will go to local charities: Bob’s Buddies, a Raleigh-based foundation that help kids with pediatric brain tumors; Meg’s Smile, a Holly Springs-based nonprofit that provides special days out or gifts to North Carolina children affected by serious illnesses; and the Holly Springs Food Cupboard.

Young said more sponsors are welcome.

“I wanted to be able to show everybody how much of home this is to me and how much I wanted to help the kids and the parents to really see how much we could really do to change so much in the area,” Moore said. “What use is life if you don’t reach your hand out to someone?”

This story was originally published July 8, 2016 at 3:30 PM with the headline "NFL’s Sio Moore returns to Wake County to host football camp."