Taking on the Challenge as a Family
Mora draws strength from those closest to him
Mike Brohard
Sunday was about getting his feet on the ground. A new beginning for Jim Mora, but a familiar process.
As he and members of his family departed the plane at the airport, Jim, with his wife Kathy standing next to him, declared the Mora’s were “home.” They weren’t here. He wasn’t here. It was we, and as he would tell his now Colorado State team the next day, actions are what matters.
One only has to watch to understand. There stood Jim, ready to embark on his next challenge, that of rebuilding the Rams. Kathy was with him. So were children Lillia and Trey Mora, Katrina and Connor Kenochan. The couple will tell you they have six children in all, Jim saying seven by including daughter-in-law, Kanika.
Home is important. Home means family.
“Completely family oriented; it is a family affair for sure. You can see the kids here, and the other two would love to be here,” Kathy said. “Everything revolves around family. I mean, it's football and family for us, period.”
They were all given a Colorado greeting, one they felt carried a bit of magic. Just before their plane touched down, the first real snow of the season started to gently fall. It provided a white-carpet welcome for them, the tarmac freshly covered with powder as introductions were made, gratitudes extended.
Jim lived in the state for a spell growing up as a kid, and Trey attended Colorado. There’s the connection between him coaching in the Pac-12 at UCLA to start his college career and now guiding the Rams into the reenvisioned version of the conference. There are family ties for the Moras and the Sidwells, with Scott Sidwell CSU's Deputy Director of Athletics. Jim mentions often his nephew, Milo, attended Colorado State.
Home is where the heart is, and he intends to give his fully to elevating the program.
“This is this is where we are and we plan to fully embrace this community, this program, the players and the staff. We will integrate ourselves into this community as completely as we can and really be a part of the fabric of this thing, and that's exciting for us,” Jim said. “This is very exciting, and I think anytime you take a new job you have to have that approach. Otherwise, you're cheating yourself and you're cheating all those people who are depending upon you. Like I said, it's all about diving in and fully investing, and I've been able to do it a few times in my career. I understand. I did it as a kid. My dad was a coach; we moved around and I know the first thing my mom always did is she always found us a house so we felt like we had roots.
“And that's what we plan to do here.”
He has great plans for this program. He met with the team Monday morning and laid it out. He intends to win the Pac-12 Championship. He intends to make the College Football Playoff and win. Plans, he said, must be stated. However, banners are never raised for plans made, just goals achieved.
He wants banners. That’s what he expects to do guiding the Rams. There is no timeline, but more importantly, no limitations.
Sunday he and his family were able to get a quick tour of the office, Canvas Stadium. His personal space and Sonny Lubick Field. The locker room and the coaches’ locker room. Then he said it -- “I don’t know what else you could ask for. Let’s go win games, right.”
That’s a familiar refrain for Colorado State faithful, especially since the debut of Canvas Stadium brought football back to campus for the first time in decades. Attendance has been on the rise, with the past two seasons producing two of the best attendance figures in program history.
The second verse of the statement has been tricky, the winning games part. There’s only been two bowl trips since the first year of the stadium in 2017. There have been no conference championships since 2002.
That’s why Jim is here, because he’s won everywhere he’s been. He brought quick success to Atlanta and Seattle in the NFL. He did the same in college at UCLA and Connecticut.
Reclamation projects are his thing for a simple reason.
“I love hard things. I love challenges,” he said. “Yeah, we're sitting here today and I'm looking over your shoulder at the Rocky Mountains, I'm looking at a peak and I'm saying I'm gonna get to the top of that peak. One of the favorite things for me to do away from football and family is go uphill. I love to hike. I love to climb mountains. I love to skin, I love to mountain bike. Anything that is a challenge to me physically and mentally … You know, can I do it? I love it.
“It fuels me, and so coming into a situation that I've come into where programs have maybe not been where they needed to be or wanted to be, that excites me. That fuels me. It's just like trying to get to the top of the mountain. I was thinking today about what I want to accomplish here and what we want to accomplish. Well, I want to win a national championship. I'm not gonna be talking about it every day because there's so many steps that have to happen before you get there, but I can tell you that I want to win a national championship, I want to win a Pac-12 championship. The other thing I want to do is I want to scale all the 14ers.”
“I think from a young age, the way that we've been raised is that because of him, it's been in our nature to kind of protect the house in a way and to be there for each other in all of the big moments and the small.Lillia Mora
Kathy will be with him, at least on some days. She also likes to climb mountains, just not in the same way as her husband. She likes to hike. He’s there for the challenge, looking at his watch at the start to track the race to the top. But sometimes – and he will let her know – he’s doing it to take in the nature, the stroll. Those are her speed.
So was seeing Horsetooth Reservoir, already picturing herself on a paddleboard.
“We take our time a little bit more and I’ll enjoy it with Jim, so Jim and I will do it,” she said. “He'll tell me, ‘OK, today we're just going to go for a little hike.’ He lets me know that it's not a serious hike. But yes, I do love all the outdoor stuff, too. I told him I can't wait.”
Neither can the kids, who have always adapted to their father’s career, one which can be rather nomadic. Some time here, some time there. Not always on the move, but always aware.
Most importantly, always together.
“I think from a young age, the way that we've been raised is that because of him, it's been in our nature to kind of protect the house in a way and to be there for each other in all of the big moments and the small,” Lillia said. “And I think my dad did a really good job of doing that. I mean, it's really funny having a dad who's a football coach because it's not really a career that others ... It's hard to relate to for other kids.
“It's so interesting, I guess, reflecting on my childhood, because he did work seven days a week, but it never truly felt like that because of the ways that he would always show up for us. So, it feels just as important for us to show up for him.”
All of the children are grown up, starting their own lives, and they can be found from coast to coast. The only reason all of them weren’t in attendance were because Cole and Ryder were overseas. During the season, they will be here a lot, to support their father and the family. They will be here a lot, period. As Lillia put it, no matter where dad was, there were always a home base.
Colorado, she said, is now that place for them.
When Colorado State Director of Athletics John Weber made the decision to alter the direction of the program at midseason, the only real word he used in describing his target was “collaborative.” It had definite meaning for him, but with distinct ways for it to be displayed.
It was an early conversation with Jim which stood as poignant to Weber.
“When we went and visited him in Connecticut, we're sitting down at his table, we're having a conversation and he used the word, ‘we,’ and I actually stopped him and asked him to define the word we,” Weber said. “When he did that, it was very apparent that we met everybody. You know, it's the staff, it's the players, it's the community, it's the faculty, it's the students, it's the campus, it's everyone, and he embraced that from the start. I'm just really, really proud to bring him here to Fort Collins and I think he's going to be a wonderful standout community member for us.”
There was one other trait Weber wanted, which was a builder. While the university did an expansive search, there was a very small list of those who came with a proven track record.
Jim being one of them.
“One of the things that we absolutely sought was a program builder and someone that has expertise in doing that, has a proven track record in doing that,” Weber said. “We found that in Coach Mora and I think the combination of President Amy Parsons, our athletics department and our football program, Coach Mora and his wife Kathy, I think we're all going to work incredibly well together and I'm excited to see the results on the field here for years to come.”
Kathy came out last week to visit the town, to see if there was a fit. She will not pinpoint one thing over another. Rather, she came awa impressed by the entire package. The people and the city of Fort Collins. The activities outdoors. A place where family will feel at home.
She will be visible and completely vested. She explains when all of the children left the house, she needed an outlet. Sure, she still runs a baby blanket business, but she needed some day-to-day interaction. She started making treats for the staff and for the players on their birthdays. She became known as the “cookie lady.” On Sunday’s at UConn, there were staff dinners with children running all around.
She is all in. She’s also trying to move from superstitious to a little ‘stitious.
“It was always stay down in the first quarter until we scored, which pretty much we did, and then head up to the suite and watch the game from up there because you can see it much better,” Kathy said. “Then the fourth quarter, sometimes I was getting too nervous because one time I went -- it was the Syracuse game -- and between walking from the suite and getting down to the field, everything turned around.
“That was my thought process, it's like, uh-oh, maybe I should have stayed up there? There's been a lot of staying up, now it's game by game. I'm trying to not be so superstitious, saying, hey, it's not me, it has nothing to do with me, it has everything to do with those players and those coaches and everybody out there. It doesn't matter if I'm up or down, so I'm trying to get away from that, but our routine is that Jim knows where I will be on the field before and then at the end of the game.”
Because family matters. It’s what he knows, and how he was raised. This was his life long before he coached, long before he played in college at Washington. A successful team needs to be a family, and they need a family supporting them.
All it will require of you is a quick glance. Notice the family interaction, the looks and the smiles they exchange. Turning Colorado State into a winner will require many fronts connected, and Jim’s definitely is tied together, and thus, now tied to the Rams.
“It's imperative. You can't do this alone,” Jim said. “It's a really hard job. It's a demanding job If you don't have the complete support of your wife and your family. It can be an almost impossible job to do and get fulfillment out of it.
“And so having my family embrace what I do and love it … This is all my kids have ever known is football, and they love the new adventures. I'm fortunate to have kids who understand that change can be a good thing. Change can open up opportunities.”
Suddenly, the hard thing appears to be less difficult. It starts with putting your feet firmly on the ground. And no turf brings more security than the patch where a family builds their home.
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