Talya Moore likes to stay busy.
So when she arrived as a freshman at Perspectives in the fall of 2021, she was looking for a sport to play right away.
Unlike a lot of girls, she settled on football. She, her coaches and her teammates are glad she did.
Promoted to the varsity as a sophomore, when Perspectives was playing in the top-level Public League Red, Moore has been a fixture ever since as the Warriors’ starting center.
‘‘My brother played, so it was a must-have for me,’’ Moore said. ‘‘And it was the only [fall] sport I was interested in.
‘‘Football is a fun game. . . . It’s all about the heart, and I feel like I have the heart for it.’’
Moore said she wasn’t sure how her teammates would react to having a girl on the team.
‘‘At first, I’m gonna be honest, I did not know if they were gonna be welcoming,’’ she said. ‘‘But they were very open. They [were] surprised. I was shocked, too, because I thought there was gonna be at least one more girl on the team.
‘‘But when I got there, it was very welcoming, like we [were] one big, happy family.’’
‘‘We took her in as another teammate,’’ senior quarterback Christopher Smith said. ‘‘We don’t look at another gender [differently]. If you want to play football, you want to play football.’’
Coach Terry Jones is also the senior student recruitment manager for the Perspectives schools. He had met Moore in that role before she arrived on campus and knew she was coming to the South Side school.
‘‘I didn’t know how serious she would be when she got here,’’ Jones said. ‘‘She was very quiet, [kept] to herself.’’
He said he noticed a difference in Moore heading into her sophomore year.
‘‘Before you know it, she came out of her shell,’’ Jones said. ‘‘She made an impression on our staff. But she also made an impression on the referees to the point where one of the lead referees said, ‘Sometimes I get caught up in the game, and I’m looking at her, and I’m, like, ‘‘She’s blocking this kid from Morgan Park. How is she pulling it off?’’ ’
‘‘We’ve seen her grow, and the school loves her.’’
Moore is a three-sport athlete, playing basketball in the winter and throwing the shot put and discus for the track team in the spring. She’s also the vice president of the student government and carries a 3.22 grade-point average.
In addition, she has been named to the #65 Honor Roll, an award started by retired Bears long snapper Patrick Mannelly to honor Chicago-area high school athletes who exemplify the values of excellence, integrity, effectiveness, teamwork and balance.
‘‘It’s very time-consuming,’’ Moore said of all her activities. ‘‘But if you’re doing something you love, I feel like you always make time for it.
‘‘My biggest thing [is] making sure I’m doing something because I don’t like sitting still.’’
While this year likely will be the end of her playing career, Moore doesn’t want to walk away from football. She said she’d like to be a trainer in college, then shift to another role after that.
‘‘I do want to come back and coach at Perspectives because this is where it started,’’ she said.