Courier Summer 2021

KEVICC Sporting Alumni Kieffer Moore I’m writing a little information about Kieffer Moore, the Cardiff City and Wales Striker. He scored the equalising goal for Wales in 1-1 draw with Switzerland recently at Euro 2020 (even though it’s in 2021, but the name has been kept as ‘2020’ so we all feel like Covid never happened and imagine it’s 2020 still. Yeah). ‘Why are you writing about blooming football?’ I hear you peanut-hugging types ask. Well, it’s because old Kieffer is a past KEVICC student. When I say ‘old’ I mean it in an endearing and affectionate cockney ‘me old mucker’ kinda way, not as in ‘he’s old’. He’s not. He’s 28. Admittedly, to everyone who’s reading this who is a KEVICC student currently that’s like grandad status, but to the rest of us, the guy is a spring chicken. Anyway, I digress, as usual. I taught Kieffer back in 2007 for Media Studies when he was in Y10. He joined the school when I did. 18 years ago. This is before The English Block was built. Yes I’m that old. He was in the same Year Group as Jordan Bartlett, whose brother Billy I just finished teaching and who has brothers in Y7 and Y9 (Jay and Jonty). The reason I mention them is because they have an affinity with Cardiff and some of them support Liverpool, which means they are better than all other football fans. It must also be pretty cool seeing one of your brother’s mates playing for the club you support. It’s a bit like going to school with Robert Patterson and then exclaiming ‘I didn’t know he was a vampire!’ If you don’t get that it’s because you haven’t watched/read Twilight which means you’re very cool. Oh, look, I’ve gone on a tangent again. And also make myself a hate figure for wannabe vampires everywhere. Bring it on. I like garlic. So, Kieffer was in a Media class which had just two girls in it. The testosterone levels in this class were unreal. All the other boys were rugby fans and they use to mock Kieffer a bit for his love of football. And Wales. I used to back him up on the football but less so on Wales, but he always took it with a smile. It didn’t faze him. It was more what the boys would call ‘banter’ than bullying, and when I’d mock rugby in class it would always end up being like a House of Commons ding- dong and I’d have to end up shouting ‘Order! Order!’ to calm things down. That class was a bit like being in a Rugby Cult. But I always respected him for not kicking the football into touch so he could gain greater affinity with the rugby lads. To be honest, looking back, the kid must have had some sort of superpower to know the future because his calm and stoic nature suggested he always knew he was going to ‘make it’ and he would have the last laugh. He is a great example of determination and resilience. As a keen football fan, I’d often ask the PE staff at the time about the students who were close to ‘making it’ as a pro. There was one boy in Kieffer’s Year Group who was looked upon as having greater footballing ability but I don’t believe he ‘made it’ and though I remember his name and did sign him in Football Manager I won’t mention him here as it wouldn’t be fair. Kieffer wasn’t really expected to do as well as he has. But he clearly had a love for the sport and a goal to succeed at it and that determination clearly helped him get there. It clearly wasn’t plain sailing. As already indicated, I’m a huge Football Manager fan, and when you look him up on there you can see his career trajectory. It wasn’t the same as the likes of other local Devon lads who’ve ‘made it’ like Ollie Watkins and Ethan Ampadu who started at Exeter and then went to Brentford then Villa or Chelsea straight away: He’s clearly had points in his career where he must have felt the ‘big stage’ may not be his, but his resilience and determination clearly kept him going, and after being what Football Manager would term as a ‘journey man’ for a good few years he hit some form on loan at Rotherham (more than a goal a game – ask Batistuta, that’s good) and from then on his career took off. He’s now starting regularly for Wales, alongside the likes of Gareth Bale (who cost Real Madrid £84 million) and Aaron Ramsey (who didn’t cost Juventus anything but that doesn’t mean he’s not good, it just means that his previous club Arsenal were, very, very stupid) and has been linked with a move to a Premier League club. Not bad. I don’t have any contact with Kieffer nor do I claim to have any influence on his a career at all, but he is a great example to the current crop of KEVICC kids – and everyone else – that through determination and resilience you can achieve a lot even when things don’t seem like they’re going the way you like at times. The moral is to stick at it. Who knows what will come of it? Words by Duncan Chilton Class of 2008 Page 26