Vigil shows the many sides of Quentin Moses

A year ago, former Cedar Shoals coach Scott Wilkins stopped by Reinhardt University to check out practice.

He was visiting Quentin Moses, a former player who was a defensive assistant at the school. Eventually, the coaches sat down for a devotional. The Reinhardt coaches alternate who shares the day’s message. On this day, it was Moses’ turn.

Wilkins doesn’t remember the specific passage — just that Moses talked about sacrifice. He mostly remembers what it wasn’t. It wasn’t arrogant or cocky.

The words were from the heart, Wilkins said. It was a side of Moses he knew was there, but had never seen.

It took nearly 20 minutes for anyone to mention football or basketball or track at a vigil for Moses, who died Sunday in a house fire in Monroe, at Cedar Shoals Thursday. After all, Athens knows Moses, the football player. He played basketball and football and ran track at Cedar Shoals. Stayed in town to play for Georgia, where he’d become an All-SEC selection and win an SEC title. Went on to play multiple seasons in the NFL.

Thursday wasn’t about that, not really. It was about what happens outside of the space between end zones.

Wilkins mentioned two specific periods during the vigil. The first was sitting in that room at Reinhardt, listening to Moses’ devotional. The second was nearly 10 years ago, when Moses stood in a similar atmosphere and remembered his best friend, Xavier Godard, who died in 2007. Moses tried to take care of Godard’s wife, Andria, and daughter, Jasmine, in his friend’s absence.

Andria, 31, and Jasmine, 10, also died in the fire Sunday.

Wilkins was the fourth to speak at the vigil. Dexter Thompson, a 1998 Cedar Shoals graduate, organized the memorial and listed some of Quentin’s nicknames: Q, Quent, Q. Mo. Stella Collins sang. Pastor Rick Smith told the crowd a story he heard about Moses. He’d fall asleep in class and wake up to a pop quiz. He’d ace the test.

Wilkins tied it together. His nicknames were nice, but the things opponents called the defensive end probably weren’t, he said. He was a gentleman and a scholar, Wilkins added.

As a boy, he sang in the children’s choir at New Grove Baptist Church in Winterville, Ovita Thornton said. They recorded CDs and traveled a little. He participated in the Christmas and Easter pageants.

Athens-Clarke County mayor Nancy Denson declared Feb. 16, 2017 a day of remembrance for the Moses and Godard families.

Moses’ cousin, Michael Johnson, wrapped up the night. Johnson was a last-minute addition to the speaking lineup. He reminded the folks in the gym — the friends in the bleachers and the family in folding chairs that sandwiched the Jaguar pawprint on the floor — of what Moses demonstrated.

“Even though he’s gone, he’s not really gone. He’s gone on,” Johnson said. “Though he is gone, a part of us has went with him and yet still, a part of him remains with us. There’s one thing that I can feel in here and that’s love. With love, there’s nothing that we have to worry about.”