Last week saw a few family members travel to Albuquerque, NM to see Trav play his first-ever collegiate football game. Jake, Shawn, Corey, and O'Malley represented the Moore-Messner Clann in attendance at the University of New Mexico Lobo's home stadium. This week, January 12, 2026, most of the entire McCloskey-Moore clann and friends showed up at Central Michigan University's Kelly/Shorts stadium before 19,005 fans, the largest CMU home opener since 2015.

     Jake loaded up the Family suburban and was in Mount Pleasant at 8 AM for a 1 PM game in order to have his choice of tailgating spots in lot 63 E. At 8 AM Jake was third in line so he had a whole field to choose where he was going to set up our tailgating. At 10:50 AM Shannon, Tracy, MacKelle, Malek, myself, and Shannon's friend Jessica, who just recently moved back home to Michigan, and several of her friends stood outside the Marriott hotel, where the CMU football teams spends their Friday nights before home games, to watch the football team walk over to the stadium at 10:50 AM. It was a real tearjerker to see Trav step out of his team line and walk over and give us mother a hug and a kiss and then get back in with his 104 other team members and continue on into the stadium. There was a steady stream of familiar faces and faces that I haven't seen in quite some time at the tailgate. Diane and Shirley drove all the way from commerce Township to be there along with Karlee and Seth, Michael and Monica,  Mo and Donna, Wendy and her husband Dale, John and Kathy Pavlik and their two sons, the Filipaks, Mike and Carrie,  just to name a few. The two hours pregame were filled with lots of talk hugs handshakes, and laughs. It was a great time. At about 12:45 p.m. we took the short walk to get to our seats in the south end zone of the stadium. What a mixed feeling of pride and love to see Trav come running out of the tunnel onto the field.

     Most people never see what actually goes into preparing for a football season — the stress, the pressure, the concentration, and the bruises. That preparation starts in January and only grows in complexity and time commitment through spring practice, preseason practice, and finally game-week practice. Most of those are twelve-hour days. And then there are the expectations: the expectations of family and friends, of teammates past and present, of coaches past and present, and most of all, the expectations Trav sets for himself.

     Trav told me he had one goal for this season: to "make the bus." Slightly more than sixty players travel to away games out of the 105 total team. That alone was a major achievement for Trav. Then Trav received a bonus...he played one play. This past week, in his second game, Trav played five snaps. For a freshman, that is a tremendous accomplishment. In my many years of coaching football, freshmen rarely see the varsity field, and there's a reason for that. So Trav has not only reached the goal he set for this season — his work ethic and his attitude are earning him more and more playing time.

     Every one of you reading these lines has a share in Trav'ssuccess because of the support and encouragement you've given him his whole life. It takes a village to raise a child. Thanks to Trav's village, he's well on his way.

Trav is #22 near the end of the players running onto the field.  Also, remember to click on the thumbnail images below to enlarge them..