Westmont women’s basketball coach Kirsten Moore likes to create a theme for her team to focus on each season. This year’s theme is “grit and gratitude,” she told the crowd at last Monday’s Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table press luncheon.
The origin of the theme comes from a chapter of Moore’s life. “This summer, when I reflected on my journey over the last 2½ years, gratitude really came to the forefront as something that I think has helped me,” she said. “To be able to have victory even through hard times in my life, was choosing to remain grateful.”
In May of 2012, Moore lost her husband, Alex, from a pulmonary embolism following surgery for Crohn’s disease. Seven weeks later their daughter, Alexis, was born. The Westmont and Santa Barbara communities rallied to help her and the baby as she continued to coach. She guided her team to the NAIA National title in 2013.
Moore said she and her team talk about grit and gratitude every day. She said she’s researched how gratitude affects people. “It’s unbelievable at what science has now proven about what grateful hearts and grateful spirits actually produces,” she said. “There are physical benefits to it, psychological benefits, physiological benefits, all these different things that are benefits of having a grateful spirit.”
She encouraged everyone to keep that in mind not just during the week of Thanksgiving but every day throughout their lives. “We do have a lot to be thankful for,” she said.
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