Maya Moore - Personal

Personal

Maya April Moore was born on June 11, 1989 in Jefferson City, Missouri. She is the daughter of Kathryn Moore. Moore had her first exposure to basketball at the age of three. Her mother mounted a hoop on the back door of their apartment.

As a junior in 2005–06, she was named the Naismith Prep Player of the Year after leading Collins Hill High School to Georgia's Class 5A state championship. She was only the second junior to win the Naismith award Her first dunk was one-handed off an alley-oop pass in warm-ups at a dunk contest in Charlotte, NC in December 2005. She was 16 at the time.

In December 2006, she led the Collins Hill Eagles over Poly (Long Beach, California) by a score of 75–61, resulting in her being selected unanimously as the Most Valuable Player of the Tournament of Champions in Chandler, Arizona. In the title game of the "T-Mobile Invitational" in Seattle, she scored 48 points in a win over St. Elizabeth (Wilmington, Delaware).

In 2007, Moore became Collins Hill High School's all-time leader in points and rebounds. During her four seasons at Collins Hill, the school amassed a 125–3 record. Moore won 3 Georgia Class 5A State Championships. Collins Hill was ranked No. 1 and claimed the crown of National Champions in 2007 by USA Today (Ranked No. 2 in 2006 and Ranked No. 5 in 2005). Moore announced that she would play college basketball at the University of Connecticut.

After she led Collins Hill High School to a third straight Georgia Class 5A state championship she received her second Naismith Prep Female Player of the Year in 2007.

Moore was named a WBCA All-American. She participated in the 2007 WBCA High School All-America Game, where she scored 25 points and earned MVP honors for the Red team.