For both the Wakefield Warriors in high school and the Virginia Wesleyan Marlins in college, Khory Moore was a highly accomplished and high-scoring basketball player who helped his teams find significant success.
Recently, the Arlington native from the Green Valley neighborhood was honored for his Division III college achievements by being inducted into the Virginia Wesleyan Athletic Hall of Fame. (The college was renamed Batten University in July.)
“Man, I feel great and fulfilled just to get to this point and thinking about what I had to overcome to be here,” Moore told ARLnow. “It’s very fulfilling.”
Moore played four years for Virginia Wesleyan, graduating in 2017. During his career, the guard became the Marlins’ second all-time scoring leader with 2,028 career points. His 633 points are a single-season team record, as are his 305 three-point baskets and 191 steals.
In college, Moore was honored on many levels. Among others, he was a four-time All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference selection, including being the league’s Rookie of the Year.
In addition, Moore was chosen first and second team all-region by D3Hoops.com in different years and was a three-time all-state selection. In the 2014-15 season, Moore helped the Marlins reach the final four of the NCAA Division III national tournament.
“Khory is one of my all-time favorite players,” 29-year Virginia Wesleyan head coach Dave Macedo said. “He just took off here, lived up to all of the expectations we had for him and got better every year. He was a great teammate and great young man, and is as loyal as you can be.”
Macedo explained how his team aggressively recruited Moore.
“We wanted him here badly, and Khory provided us with a lifetime full of memories at Virginia Wesleyan,” Macedo said.
Moore also provided significant positive memories for the Wakefield program during his three-year varsity career as a point and shooting guard. He graduated in 2013.
Moore scored 895 career points for Wakefield, including scoring 39 during an overtime loss to W.T. Woodson in a region-tournament championship game his senior season. Wakefield then went 1-1 in the following state tournament and won a district championship that winter.
Until Moore began playing varsity ball for Wakefield, the program had fallen off a bit in previous seasons. His play helped the Warriors revitalize their success.
“Khory came in and helped turn Wakefield back into what we used to be,” Wakefield coach Tony Bentley said.
Moore was chosen to all-district region teams multiple times while playing at Wakefield.
However, Bentley said things did not start well for Moore as a sophomore at Wakefield. Early in the season, Bentley kicked him off the team because of poor behavior and inattention to academics.
“He had to grow up and mature. We told him that, he recognized that and he did that,” Bentley said.
Moore agreed.
“I had to grow up, and stayed with it. My love for Arlington and Wakefield and Bentley was my motivation to grow up, because I didn’t want to quit playing basketball. Arlington and Wakefield are two places I really cherish.”
Moore also played football for Wakefield, becoming the starting quarterback one season.
After college, Moore played semi-professionally for a few seasons with the D.C. Heat team.
Starting this coming winter high-school season, Moore will be a varsity referee for the Cardinal Basketball Officials Association, calling girls and boys games, but not any Wakefield contests, in Northern Virginia jurisdictions. Moore has refereed freshman and junior varsity high-school games the past two seasons for the Cardinal program, working his way up to work varsity action.
“I like refereeing a lot. It’s another great way to stay in the game, which is what I want to do,” Moore said.
His goal is to eventually become good enough to referee games at the college level and higher.
