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By Dave Ball 

In May of 1980, Jimmy Carter was in the White House, Mount St. Helens erupted, Post-it Notes hit store shelves, and Pac-Man gobbled his first ghost.

On the Oregon prep sports scene, the OSAA had just started hosting a state softball championship tournament. Churchill was first in line to collect trophies. The Lancers won seven titles in eight years under the guidance of coach Steve Minney. A handful of players, including standout pitcher Kim (Moe) Anderson, hoisted the first-place trophy in each of their four high school campaigns. 

“Everyone on our team was pretty confident,” Moe said. “We knew we had to keep working hard, but we all wanted to do it and could see that it would be a great feat.”

Kim picked up the nickname ‘MoeJoe’ during a high school run that saw the Lancers compile a 95-8 (92.2%) record, highlighted by a perfect 24-0 run through her junior season that culminated with a mercy-rule victory in the title game. Moe did not surrender an earned run during that season.

“It was a really great group of kids,” Minney said. “I was always blessed with girls who wanted to work hard, and that set the stage for the kids who followed.”

“A bunch of us grew up playing competitive club ball since third grade, so high school didn’t seem like a huge jump,” Moe added. “I’ve always tried to stay within myself and just keep it me and the batter — bring on the next one, you know.”

Kim Moe news clipping

In the summer before her sophomore year, the team travelled to Lincoln, Neb., and won the 15U national crown. Moe mostly remembers the nonstop torrential rainstorms that pushed the schedule to night and forced organizers to put together makeshift fields to avoid a muddy infield. 

Moe remains at the top of the Oregon softball record books, ranking second all-time in career no-hitters (21) and career ERA (0.17), and she is third in career shutouts (46).

“She was one of a kind,” Minney said. “She had the best rise ball. She hit the corners well and threw hard, but her rise ball was her go-to pitch.”

Her high school success landed her a college scholarship to pitch at Cal-Berkeley, becoming the first in her family to attend college.

“It was really exciting to have that opportunity. It was new for women to have a sport that could pay for their education,” Moe said. “I learned to set my mind to what I wanted to achieve, and to lean on the support around me — my teammates and family.”

The Golden Bears finished third in the 1986 College Softball World Series.

After graduating, Moe remained in the Bay Area, where she used her exercise science degree to teach fitness and nutrition classes for employees at the Chevron Oil Company. 

At the turn of the century, she and her husband Gary moved to Fort Collins, Colo., where they would raise their family — daughters Autumn and Emily and son Brad. Once the kids reached school age, Moe embarked on a new adventure, returning to school to become a registered nurse. She has spent almost 20 years working in labor and delivery.

“I get to carry over a lot of the coaching I’ve learned,” Moe said. “You are working hard to have an outcome, and I get to be a part of that. And the best outcome you could have is bringing life home.”

Kim Moe

Softball remained a big part of her life as she served as a pitching coach for each of her daughters — Autumn would go on to throw at Stephen F. Austin in Texas, and Emily is wrapping up her career at Vanguard University in Southern California.

“It’s great to have something in common with my daughters, something that ties us together — we are a softball family,” Moe said. 

Her husband Gary (they celebrate 25 years this summer) has built a pitching area in the family’s back yard, and Moe continues to offer private lessons. She recently took on a request from a neighbor kid just a few houses away.

“You have to work hard even when people aren’t watching,” Moe said. “You have to make sure it is something you love, and that you are doing it for the right reasons. It takes a lot of time — you have to live it and breathe it.”

That is a lesson she embraced while still in grade school. Her former coach remembers it well because he would be at the other end of the phone line and eventually the one wearing a catcher’s mitt.

“If we went to a tournament and she didn’t feel that she threw well, she would find me and we’d go out there and throw again — she just worked at it,” Minney said.

Moe remains in contact with her former coach and still crosses paths with her former teammates often at events that involve their children. 

“Whenever you accomplish something with somebody it creates a bond that’s inseparable — they are just people that you want to be around,” Moe said. “When you are in it, you are just a 16- or 17-year-old kid playing because you love it. You don’t realize you are paving the way for something bigger.”