If not Football Mother of the Year, then Mandi Moore is Example of What a Football Mom Should Be
Publisher's Note: We are re-releasing this story for Mother's Day. It has been my pleasure to get to know a lot of football moms in my role as a sideline reporter for the Oklahoma State Cowboys and in my role with various media outlets from KFOR-TV, Triple Play Sports Radio, O-State Sports Report, Go Pokes Magazine and internet, and now Pokes Report to know a lot of Oklahoma State football and athletic moms.
The one I have known the longest is my wife, Lynne is the mother of Zach Allen, so now not just the mom of a football player but also a football coach with Zach as the head football coach at NEO A&M Junior College. We both have known Judy Gundy for a long time, the mother of former Oklahoma State quarterback and now head coach Mike Gundy. Judy Gundy, who balances the football mom thing with both schools and son Cale at OU is as good a mom as there is.
I think of Chuba Hubbard's mom, Candace, who I beleive when Chuba talks about coming back to get that degree that is fulfilling a strong wish of his mother. Thinking of current players and I've met so many of their moms from Brock Martin's brave mother Penny, who is battling cancer to Spencer Sander's mother Carrie. Center Ry Schneider has a great mom in Nikki and Braden Cassity's mom was once a contributor to the Oklahoma State coach's show when Braden's father was an assistant coach at Oklahoma State. Colleen Hartman is a sweetheart and Braden's biggest fan.
There are so many over the years. The many assistant coach's wives and also football moms, like Kristen Gundy and Ruth McEndoo, who has her husband Jason on the coaching staff, and son Luke at Stillwater High School as a senior this fall and he will be playing college football. Luke tells me likely at Oklahoma State.
Happy Mother's Day to all the football moms out there because they are all very special for what they do and what they put up with!
We love all of you Moms,
Robert Allen - Publisher of Pokes Report
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Mandi Moore loves having her boys at home, "the twins" is what she calls them. Except Moore knows this isn't the way it's supposed to be. Tylan and Tracin Wallace should be in Stillwater on the Oklahoma State University campus, where the duo is easily recognized. Tylan should be continuing the rehab on his left knee. Tracin, who had his football career come to an end because of three ACL tears in the same knee, should be out on the field coaching. The COVID-19 pandemic has the twins splitting time between Mom's house and older sister Taylor's apartment.
"So far, I think we are doing pretty well," Moore said over the phone. "I have always kind of been introverted, but at work I’m extroverted because my work requires that. I really like to stay home, but this is kind of testing that theory a little bit. I’m doing okay and Tylan and Tracin are doing okay, but they like to be out and so this is testing them more."
Moore said that is why the twins split time, life moves a little faster at big sister's. That is also where the workout area is.
"Every night, the apartment that my daughter lives in backs up to the Trinity Trails and they run along the Trinity River and it is really long, so he and Tracin and my god son (Estevan) run and do exercises. I walk because I’m not a runner and we get out and get some exercise in the afternoon too. He (Tylan) is doing a lot of that on his own with guidance from Coach (Rob) Glass and John Stemm."
That has been a big concern as Tylan is still polishing up rehab from his ACL surgery in late November. The non contact injury happened in practice the week after Wallace showed the World one of the fiercest stiff arms by a receiver in the win over Iowa State.
"That has been one of those things that we have been trying to figure out," Moore told me. "I know before the stay home order they were trying to set some rehab up for him here in Fort Worth. He went to a rehab center when he was here before the Christmas break and they were trying to reset that, but, of course, now all of that has been shut down. I believe they are really helping him to figure out what he can do on his own to continue working that out."
Director of Athletic Training and Rehab John Stemm told me they have that under control with video guidance and examples of what they want him to do. In addition, he has an expert in rehab as close to him as it gets in Tracin. After three surgeries to repair his ACL, he is an expert.
"I think that has been one of the best things to come out of this," Mom has observed. "There is nothing really great about it, but something that has helped him through the whole process is that Tracin is there with him to, kind of, walk him through and even tell him what to expect before it happens. He has really looked to him and used him for that a lot. That has been great."
That is kind of a good place to start with why Moore is such a spectacular Football Mom, which is to say, she is just a great Mom period.
Her four kids and a God son that she has been intrumental in raising. Oldest daughter Taylor is 25. Tracin and Tylan will be 21 in May. Her youngest son is 10-years-old and her God son, she says is just like one of the crew is 26-year-old Estevan.
I told Mandi that Tracin and Tylan are two of the best young men that I've ever seen come through the program and as head coach Mike Gundy calls it, the Cowboy culture. Those two are good students, reliable, always friendly and respectful. The Wallace boys are as good as it gets. That doesn't count their on the field contributions.
Tylan has had two All-American caliber seasons, even though his 53 receptions for 903-yards and eight touchdowns came in just eight games. The season before he had 86 receptions for 1,491-yards and 12 touchdowns.
Mandi likes that, but she loves that her twin sons are thought of as good guys.
"That has always been my ultimate goal," she explained. It is what I wanted for all of my kids that they are good people, they are productive, and they add good things to the World. Ever before the twins were around and I had my daughter. That was just my goal as a mom and I really focused on that, just to be, first and foremost, to raise them to be the best person that they could be. I feel like in order to do that you have to lead by example and you have to live your life the way you want them to live theirs."
Moore said she is not perfect by any means. She told me that she tested her parents as a teenager.
"I gave my parents a run for their money," she added with a little bit of a laugh. "I told (Tracin and Tylan) that anything you are thinking of, I’ve done it or I’ve worked with someone that has done it. There is nothing you can do that I won’t recognize or know about. That was what I always used to tell them."
The sports part of it. The ability for all of her kids was natural. Mandi said she was an athlete and played softball. It started young for all of them. Taylor started out in gymnastics and was really good according to Mandi. Taylor was involved as a mascot for a cheerleader team that cheered for a peewee football team. That meant that the twins were going to football games before that could talk or crawl.
"They were literally, like from birth, going to football games," Moore said. "They were going all the way up until six when I signed them up to play. They were at football games all those years because their sister was cheering at them. It was never even like a discussion, we all just assumed that as soon as they were old enough that they would play."
Boy, did Tracin and Tylan play and they were stars at every level and in every sport. Mom was there getting them to the game and to the practices and loving it.
"I absolutely love it. For a long time, when they were little and playing peewee sports I had absolutely no life," said the busy but happy mom. "It was like back-to-back-to back and my weekends were taking them to games, to tournaments all over the place. I wouldn’t change that for anything because I was able to watch them grow and do everything that wanted to be happy. It was the best thing for me. I wouldn’t have wanted to do anything else but to watch them excel and love what they do."
Football-to-basketball-to-baseball-to-track and their exploits had reached South Hills High School before they were there. Once there the Scorpions went on a run in a variety of sports and by their junior year, the two were known well to major colleges. Kasey Dunn did a tremendous job recruiting the duo and the mom.
Mandi Moore calls Dunn the best and is overjoyed that Tracin is getting his lessons on being a coach while at Dunn's side.
"The best, absolutely, the best," she emphasizes about Dunn. "It is really what he wants to do. His first choice would be to play, but with that taken away, his heart is in the game. I can’t see him not being a part of football in some way."
Now, the trips are to Stillwater and the love for the game and watching her boys influence on the game has not subsided one bit.
I've seen her on game days and there is nobody more proud of her boys. It's matched, but I've never seen it passed. She watches the sidelines for her young coach Tracin. She is all over cheering for the exploits of No. 2.
She will tell you the two boys are a lot alike, but that Tylan is a little more of an extrovert and social, while Tracin enjoys being social, he has mom's personality of sometimes wanting to stay at home. She says that Tracin calls her almost everyday. Sometimes Tylan will get on, but if she gets a call from Tylan's cell number she knows ...
"He has a question that he needs an answer to or he needs me to do something for him," Mandi Moore said because she knows her boys.
More than that, she knows she has raised two really good young men. One is playing and will overcome a knee injury this coming season. The other is through playing because of the knee injuries he has had, but he is there coaching. Mom is there cheering, knowing she gave those two here best, best advice, best care and support, and her best example.
"I wouldn’t change any of it."
