Motivation never far away for Riders’ Kyran Moore

Kyran Moore doesn’t need to look far for inspiration; he writes it on the tape on his wrists.

Before every game, the 22-year-old Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver writes the name of his uncle, Kirwin King, on his right wristband and the name of his grandmother, Sharon King, on the left.

His uncle died in 2009 while Moore was in Grade 9. His grandmother died in 2017.

“I just know when I’m out there on the field, I know I have my uncle on my shoulder just looking at me,” Moore said in advance of Saskatchewan’s regular-season opener Thursday against the host Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Moore said both of his relatives would be ecstatic to see him find his way in the CFL.

“My grandma would just smile and just say she’s real proud of me and my uncle would be like, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing, chump,’ because he would always call me a chump,” Moore said. “But I know if he was here, my uncle would’ve been down to three or four games.”

When Moore’s family first moved to Bessemer, Ala., his family would often visit his grandmother and he would get dropped off there by his mother.

“My uncle, who was my mom’s only brother, was more like a big brother to us,” Moore said. “He spent time with us, took us outside and threw the football with us and kind of taught me the game of football. (His death) hurt because that was the first close person (to me) who died and that touched me a little bit.”

The receiver was also rocked when his grandmother died.

“My grandma was like my heart. I feel real bad because when she died, I was at (Austin Peay State University) and she was in Alabama so I couldn’t visually see her as much as I wanted to,” Moore said, “but I always knew I could go in and put a smile on her face and make her day.”

In Moore’s rookie campaign with the Roughriders last season, he hauled in 32 receptions for 475 yards and one touchdown. He’s confident he will be able to build on that and carve out a career that will help him deliver on a special promise he made to another influence in his life — his mother.

“I was in college and I didn’t have any money and I asked my mom to send me some money. So she sent me some and said, ‘Just take me shoe shopping in Italy,’ ” Moore said. “I don’t know if she was just joking or what, but I took that to heart and that was just my instant motivation in coming in here to play football and doing what I need to do.”

While he’s still working towards taking his mother to Italy, he said he’s getting closer to doing it every day.

But it wasn’t a traditional path to the CFL for Moore. He began playing football at four years old but receiver wasn’t his first calling.

“I always played quarterback and cornerback and I was always the star player on the team — whether (we) were good or bad,” Moore said. “When I was in high school, I was starting at corner and then our quarterback got hurt at the beginning of the season. I moved to quarterback and led my high school to our first-ever state championship game.”

That success didn’t translate to many scholarships for Moore, with his only offer coming from Austin Peay.

While he spent his first two seasons at cornerback, a new coaching staff came in and made a switch that changed Moore’s football fortunes.

“I was just joking with (the coaches) and said, ‘I’m the most athletic player on the team,’ and then we went and had spring practice and they told me to do some routes at wide receiver,” Moore said.

He had a meeting with the coach the next day where he was given a choice: Stay on defence or make the switch to wide receiver.

The positional switch to the offensive side of the ball proved to be a good one as it put him in position to have a big game against the University of Central Florida in 2017.

Moore finished the game with five catches for 150 yards and a touchdown. He also returned eight kicks for 233 yards, including a 91-yard return on which he was stopped just short of the end zone.

As luck would have it, a Roughriders scout was at that game.

“(The scout) texted my phone in January and asked me to come to a tryout in Alabama,” Moore said. “So I went to the tryout and killed it. I did another tryout in Florida and killed that and then got invited to the mini-camp and that’s how I ended up (in Saskatchewan).”

He admits he’s still learning to play the position but his quarterback, Zach Collaros, says Moore continues to get better at it every practice.

“I admire his passion for the game. He really wants to be a good player and he’s helping K.D. (Cannon) come along out there as well,” Collaros said. “I’d lie if there was some things — (Moore) would be the first one to tell you — that he’s still getting used to. He seemed to pick up things fast.”

Moore also feels more confident and comfortable in the Roughriders’ offence heading into the new season.

“I’m going out there knowing what I’m doing and I can play at a faster and higher level now,” Moore said. “I’m more comfortable.”