‘Tiki’ wants to follow in his father’s footsteps

Travin ‘Tiki’ Moore would love to be just like his dad.
“I know my dad (Travin Moore) was a great athlete at Abbeville High, (2000 AHS grad),” he said about his dad, who was a standout player at Abbeville back in the day. “But I would also like to be better than he was .. someday.”
That is pretty big words to say considering his father’s athletic accomplishments in high school and college.
The elder Moore was an All-State football player and track star for the Wildcats. He played football at Northwestern State. Travin is also in the Abbeville High Hall of Fame.
Tiki and his dad also have different middle names, which sets them apart. Tiki’s middle name is Kohl while Travin’s middle name is Shawndale.
Where did the name ‘Tiki” come from?
His father has a simple answer for that question.
“Instead of calling him ‘Travin’ and I answer, my wife started calling him TK,” his father answered. “I did not like TK, so I called him Tiki and then everyone started calling him that.”
Tiki may well get his chance to match or exceed his father’s exploits on the football field this season.
The junior is slated to be the starting running back and linebacker for Vermilion Catholic this year as he returns from a knee injury sustained during the spring.
“It happened in February,” Moore said. “I thank God that it wasn’t serious, just a small meniscus injury.”
Moore said that he injured his knee playing basketball and that it wasn’t going to slow him down as he prepared for a return to the football field in the fall.
But after playing last year in the season of COVID-19, nothing was going to prevent him from coming back for the Screaming Eagles.
“Last year was hard, there were a lot of obstacles to overcome,” Moore said. “It was fun to do it in some ways but we know what we need to do to accomplish our goals.
“We had a great team last year with a lot of dynamic players that are going to need to be replaced but I feel that this year’s team is going to be just as good.”
Moore added that he felt that it wouldn’t be too hard to replace those players considering the new scheme that VC is going to run this year and with the players that return from last season’s t eam that advanced to the Division IV semifinals.
For Moore’s part of the VC offense, he gets down to the chase of what he does very quickly.
“I run the ball,” he said. “I go where my blockers lead me. I have a great line that helps me do what I want to do and does a great job in making me look good.”
Moore said that he’s both an inside runner and an outside runner. Not afraid to go between the tackles to get the hard yards but also enjoying running wide and putting a move on a cornerback or linebacker to spring a play for long yards as well.
Coming back from any knee injury is hard enough but for a running back, it can be double hard. But Moore credits his physical therapist for helping him recover from meniscus surgery and getting him ready for the season.
He said he was down for a couple of months and is about 80-85 percent back as the season nears.
And he can’t wait to see how the new offensive scheme the Eagles will run takes off.
“It’s not a hard scheme to learn or to run,” Moore said. “I’m up for the challenge of what I am expected to do in the new scheme, It should be fun.”