Amoore has come a long way from playing basketball in flip-flops. But basketball wasn’t always the dream. Growing up in Ballarat, about 70 miles west of Melbourne, Amoore didn’t have ESPN to watch American basketball games, she said, and tried out different sports including Australian football.
“I used to be really fast, and boys would grab my ponytail to stop me, so I’ve definitely learned a lot from that,” she said. “In terms of toughness, football is purely about tackling and dodging all those instances. So it definitely helped me be tough and taught me that, when I get hit, get up, test it out, and then go out if you’re really hurt.”
By the time she got to high school, she settled into basketball and excelled. Amoore bounced from club team to club team, eventually earning a spot on the Australian national team at different youth levels.
Eric Hayes, her coach on the Ballarat Rush, thought “the sky was going to be the limit” for Amoore.
“She’s tiny, so you just don’t know what that’s going to look like,” he said. “But she just knew she was always going to give herself the best chance to do really well. No one here is surprised.”
Hayes described Amoore’s style as dynamic, quick, bouncy, active and strong. But her greatest asset on the court is her attitude.
“She plays with joy, she just plays with this happiness, and she’s having fun,” he said. “She drops a dime to one of her teammates and she’s just as pumped doing that as she is knocking down a 3.”
And size isn’t a limitation for her.
“I think it’s hard for anybody to guard her,” Hayes said, recalling playing one-on-one with her and struggling, though he is 6-foot-3 and a former player. “I couldn’t stay in front of her.”
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