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Troup High swimmer John Moore is heading to the state finals. The sophomore punched his ticket on Wednesday at Georgia Tech to the GHSA state finals in the 50-yard freestyle.

“I get there and there are a ton of competitive swimmers and everybody has on their tech suits and the pools are super nice,” Moore said. “I was feeling pretty nervous.”

Moore traveled to Atlanta on Wednesday with a goal in mind: qualify for the finals. He would do just that, overcoming his nerves and surprising himself and his family in the process.

“I definitely surprised myself by being able to drop the time and qualify,” Moore said. “I didn’t expect it.”

“We were pleasantly surprised that he was able to keep dropping time this season rather than the other way around,” Troup swim coach Hiram Haro added. 

The reason it came as a shock was the simple fact that Moore took his entire freshman year off from swimming, not because he was burnt out, but because he tore his ACL at football practice. It has been a long and arduous journey to even get back into the pool, much less compete against the very best high schoolers in the state. 

Moore has only been back in the pool since late 2024 after over a year’s layoff due to his injury. It has taken time and patience, but Moore is nearly back to 100%.

“It was pretty difficult at first because one of my legs don’t kick as hard as the other, so it was kind of hard to stabilize that,” Moore said. “It took me a couple of months to really start to get my strength back in that leg.

“I’m probably at around 90% right now,” he added.

As a multi-sport athlete, Moore does not spend nearly as much time in the water as most of the competitors spend 5-6 days a week in the pool. Moore is a seasonal swimmer, trading in his swimming suit for a helmet and pads for a large portion of the year, which makes his performance on Wednesday all the more impressive.  

Most people might know Moore from his time on the gridiron. The sophomore is an intimidating presence at fullback, earning the starting role this season despite still being in the recovery process from his knee injury.

“Every play he made, every play he was in on this year, which he started full-back, I feel like I played,” said Tim Moore, John’s father.

There are not many fullbacks that can glide the way Moore does in the water. The sophomore just narrowly missed out on qualifying for the finals in the 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard backstroke as well. 

Moore might be a runner, but he has been swimming for just about as long as he could walk. Moore’s mother, Kristen, runs the Troup County Sharks and introduced her children to the water at a young age.

Swimming stuck for Moore, even if he was not too fond of having his mother coach him as a young boy.

“I didn’t really want to listen to her and would just kind of go off and do my own thing,” he said, sharing a laugh with his mom.

When Moore hits the water at Georgia Tech on Wednesday, it will be the culmination of a ton of hard work, but also of mental perseverance. Haro had to do some convincing to even come out his sophomore year as Moore was contemplating taking another year off to recover from his injury.

At the prelims on Wednesday, Moore finished 17th in the 50-yard freestyle in the 1A-3A classification. Moore is already an elite swimmer and now he will get his chance to show it on the biggest stage for high school swimmers in the state of Georgia.