Gaona: Project to build memorial honoring Chris Moon is rounding third

For years, Oscar Romero and Mike Boese have worked to build a permanent memorial to one of Tucson High’s most respected baseball players.

That vision is becoming a reality.

The Badgers’ longtime baseball coach and athletic trainer say they’re a year away from unveiling a statue honoring Chris Moon, a former star baseball player who was killed in Afghanistan six years ago while serving with the Army.

“To have that come true, I think it’s the least we can do for Chris Moon and all veterans that lost their lives in service for our country,” Romero said. “It’s going to be a special thing for that family because they paid the ultimate sacrifice.”

The first part of the permanent structure, a battlefield cross statue, was presented to Moon’s parents, Brian and Marsha, Thursday night. The 45-inch tall sculpture will stand on the upper concourse at Cherry Field. A life-sized bronze statue of Chris Moon will join it next spring.

“We’re thankful his memory lives on, his legacy lives on here at Tucson High,” Brian Moon said. “It gives us that opportunity to have the memories every year and the thoughts that continue to live on. But hopefully it teaches, hopefully it shows some people here that baseball isn’t the most important thing — there are other things in life besides being good at sports.

“It tells more than just about him as just a baseball player, it tells about him as a person.”

Romero has held the Cherry Field Classic for eight years. He renamed the tournament in honor of Moon in 2011, the year after the 20-year-old died after stepping on a roadside bomb.

Moon was the Southern Arizona player of the year in 2006, a first-team all-star as a senior a year later and accepted a scholarship to play for the Arizona Wildcats. The Atlanta Braves drafted Moon in the summer of 2007.

Moon, an outfielder and pitcher, chose to attend the UA. Months later, he left school and enlisted in the Army, where he eventually became an accomplished sniper.

“I tried to talk him out of it, but it didn’t matter because he had that calling and when guys have that calling, there’s a reason for it,” Romero said. “He was the dream kid; any parent would wish their son could be like that.”

Boese, Tucson High’s head athletic trainer, has been the driving force in the efforts to have a memorial put in place — he considers Moon the high school version of Pat Tillman, the former Arizona Cardinals safety who died in Afghanistan. At the beginning, Boese didn’t know if it would ever come together.

“I look back at where we started,” Boese said. “I had no concept on fundraising and I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.

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“I just knew we needed to do something.”

Boese set up a GoFundMe account that raised $3,500 toward the cause. With the help of his daughter, Melanie, who graduated from Tucson High with Moon, they came up with a concept for the statue. Colorado-based sculptor Ann LaRose helped the Boeses come up with a final version, though the price tag — $60,000 — was more than they were expecting.

“I’m a man of faith and I prayed,” Boese said. “God slowly started opening doors right and left, especially these last couple years.”

The biggest assist came when Marsha Moon came across Legacies Alive, a nonprofit organization that memorializes soldiers killed in the line of duty. Co-founder Mike Viti, who also served in the Army, has helped raise the fundraising total to $40,000 and promised to see the project completed.

The Moons threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the Chris Moon Memorial Classic on Monday night, and were honored at Thursday’s tournament banquet. This year’s event featured 18 teams; Canyon del Oro will face Las Vegas Bishop Gorman in Friday afternoon’s championship game.

“It’s great that we’ve renamed this tournament in his honor but I want kids who come and play here 10 years from now to know who he was,” Boese said. “I thought the best way to do that would be to create a life-sized image, in his likeness, that told the story of both him as a Tucson baseball player and as a United States soldier.”

The statue will face the field and display Moon wearing his No. 11 jersey and swinging a bat, in front of a wall with a bronze sculpture of him in his Army dress uniform. Moon’s story will be engraved into the back of the wall, with the battlefield cross in the foreground.

“My ultimate goal is to also list the name of every Tucson High athlete that has made the ultimate sacrifice,” Boese said. “Everyone that is associated with the military understands the significance of what that battle cross symbol means; I think it’s really going to add to that image.”

Boese had seen the battlefield cross — consisting of a helmet, rifle and a pair of boots — on eBay and thought it would be a nice surprise for the Moon family.

“We never know what to expect with Mike," Marsha Moon said. "He loves throwing surprises at us."

Next year, nobody should be surprised to see even more.

“It’s going to be such a joyous occasion,” Boese said about completing the memorial project. “For more than a few years, I didn’t know we were ever going to get it. I didn’t think we’d get to this point and now here we are.”