Moore Looking to Reshape Culture in First Season
Logan LeGrett | IUHoosiers.com Student Staff Writer
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Gabrielle Moore's pathway to Bloomington, Indiana, has been anything but traditional.
A 2015 graduate of Southern University after a four-time all-SWAC career as a student-athlete, Moore led the Jaguars to two NCAA tournament appearances. She wasted no time after graduating pursing her career path and was hired as an assistant coach at Lake Forest College in 2015.
One year later, she joined the Jackson State program as an assistant coach. After only one year, she was elevated to head coach of both the men’s and women’s teams.
"It was scary, to say the least," Moore said. "I was very young. I had just really gotten into coaching. I knew I had a passion for tennis, and I knew I loved what I did, but I was still in the beginning of my career."
This transition period proved to be a valuable moment in Moore’s life. Not only was she taking over two tennis programs at an extremely young age for a head coach, but Moore also had more going on in her personal life than many people around her were aware of.
“A lot of people don't know, but I was pregnant within my interim year as a head coach,” said Moore. "I think that was the most rewarding year for me, I kind of had all of these adversities hit at one time. It's like, ‘wow, can I do this.’ It was a learning moment that this is really where I want to be."
The experience of leading both programs while starting a family helped establish Moore’s leadership and resilience as a coach. Moore stayed at Jackson State for six seasons and led the Tigers to back-to-back SWAC championships in 2021 and 2022.
After Jackson State, Moore took over a struggling McNeese State program that had won just six matches in the three seasons before her arrival. In her second and final season, she led the team to a school-record 24 wins.
After spending more than 10 years coaching and playing Tennis in the South, Moore, a Chicago native, was given the opportunity to move back to the Midwest when Indiana called in the summer of 2024.
“Indiana and Bloomington always feel like home,” said Moore. “It's like that family feel. That coziness. You kind of get a sense as soon as you step outside that Bloomington is home. It's very unique.”
Moore, who is no longer a stranger to turning around programs, looks to take on her biggest challenge. During the 2024 campaign, Indiana’s women's team ended the season with a 6-20 record that included a 0-11 mark against Big Ten opponents.
“I'm a true believer that culture wins,” says Moore.
That, she says, is the first steps to rebuilding a program.
“It's one day at a time, it's that consistency that has gotten the results that I've had in my previous schools,” she says. “Getting one percent better every day. That's always been my motto to any of my players. So, trying to create and build that culture, that unit that they buy in, not just to me, but to each other, that they are a player-led program. And I truly believe that's what wins.”
In her first season at Indiana, Moore inherited most of the roster from the previous staff with an impressive incoming recruiting class. Instead of reshaping the roster, Moore established why she chose to take over the Indiana program.
"I truly inherited a team that I believed in when I took this position," Moore says. "I thought that there's a lot of potential here. That's the exciting part about it for us, being able to really dig into what wasn't working and trying to fix it and find solutions and make them better.”
Early results suggest Moore’s approach is working.
During the Hoosier Classic in October, Moore’s squad surged to a record of 17-10 in singles and 11-3 in doubles.
With a roster shaped by key upperclassmen such as senior Lara Schneider and junior Nicole Teodosescu, Moore has seemingly overcome the first hurdle every new coach faces: getting a team to buy in.
"It all starts from the foundation of trust, communication, and then believing," says Moore. "It's like a relationship - you give me a little bit; I give you a little bit. But really digging into who they are... taking the time to really get to know them, to communicate with them, to find out what they love, what they like, those are the things that are building that relationship."
While success in the fall points towards improvement within the program, Moore knows that the Hoosiers need to make a statement during the spring season to establish themselves in a growing Big Ten Conference landscape.
“Coming off the year that they did, I think every weekend that we have is a good opportunity to prove we're the underdogs,” said Moore. “That's the truth. And sometimes that's your biggest weapon.”
While Moore is embracing the program's underdog status, simply competing in the Big Ten is not enough.
“We want to be a powerhouse program and there's no better way of doing that than rising to any occasion that comes up.”
As she works to rebuild the program, Moore has a clear message for Indiana fans who haven't previously followed the team: there's no greater time to support the program.
The Moore era at Indiana began with a victory over Cincinnati and will continue this weekend with a pair of home matches inside the Indiana University Tennis Center.
“We're on the rise. These girls love it here and we're going to grow, we're going to be better. It's an exciting time to be at IU."