How Mars girls’ Mya Moore hopes basketball will help her build a future as architect
Mya Moore is part of the blueprint for Mars’ girls basketball team as it strives for another appearance in the PIAA tournament.
She’ll be drawing them up soon enough.
“Basketball’s always been a big part of my life, but I think just moving forward, I want something more than just basketball,” said Moore, a senior forward, at the recent Butler Eagle Basketball Media Day. “I do wanna study something that is very time consuming.”
Alongside fellow seniors Alexis Cashdollar, a Wake Forest preferred walk-on commit, and Cecilia Christy, an Elon women’s volleyball pledge, Moore is an experienced player Planets coach Zach Stitt will count on this season.
Moore probably won’t play organized hoops once it’s over, though. Instead, she wants to be an architect.
Moore’s built her fair share of Lego sets, however. That’s probably where the idea for her future career originated.
“It really just depended,” Moore said. “Normally, I would stick to the instructions and what they would do, but eventually they’d break, something would fall and then, from there, you just build whatever you want.”
She hopes to continue playing basketball recreationally. When considering possible careers, she decided the medical field was “just not for me.” Business-related occupations didn’t interest her because she doesn’t consider herself a great salesperson.
Moore has always considered herself to be artistic, though; she now sketches buildings and such. She set her mind on what she wanted to pursue as a junior and has taken engineering and architectural design classes at Mars.
“It’s definitely different,” Moore said. “Nobody really does it.”
Moore is considering Kent State, Drexel and the New York Institute of Technology. She already has an idea of what goes into what she wants to do.
“It’s more than just building. You have to communicate with other people and it’s very teamwork-involved,” Moore said. “You do a lot of stuff on your own, obviously, but you need to be able to work with other people and do other things.”
She’s learned what it takes to be part of a team in the Planets’ front court, where she’s a vocal leader and makes sure everyone’s where they need to be on the floor. Mars coach Zach Stitt lauded Moore’s ability to block shots.
Moore’s never traveled outside of the country, but from looking at photos and reference drawings, she likes the architecture in Italy, especially Rome.
“A lot of the colleges that I’ve looked at, they have a study abroad (program) for a semester, and I think that’s a really fun experience,” Moore said.
