JC has a new buddy

Trey Moses towers over everyone in the gym.
He’s also shy, waiting quietly in line while playing a massive game of knockout.
It’s when he’s eliminated from the game and steps to a side basket with Riley Currie that his personality comes out.
He and Currie chat together like old friends. With everyone else’s attention focused elsewhere, he throws down a dunk at her request.
Moses, a 6-foot-10-inch center on the Ball State University men’s basketball team, spent Saturday evening talking to and playing basketball with about 30 members of Jay County Best Buddies.
“He’s so genuinely kind to his friends. He’s not just a peer tutor to them. He’s a real person,” said Jay County High School senior Anne Vormohr, who organized the school’s chapter of Best Buddies last year. “He gets down to their level. I watched him today, and the way he talks to them is so, just, natural. He communicates with them so well.”
Vormohr learned of Moses through her aunt, who became friends with his aunt while living in Florida.
The freshman from Louisville became involved in Best Buddies, a program focused on creating friendships and opportunities for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, while at Eastern High School. He served as a peer tutor and got to know Cory Pitsenberger through their physical education class.
“And then we just kind of became best friends and he introduced me to everybody else,” said Moses, who was one of Kentucky’s rebounding leaders last season at 10.6 per game.
He was partnered with his buddy, Blake Cummins, through Best Buddies, and also became close friends with Ellie Meredith, who has Down Syndrome.

After getting permission from Meredith’s parents and his girlfriend, who was completely on board with the idea, Trey asked Meredith to go to prom with him. He made the request during a class they shared together with a posterboard that read “Party with me like it’s 1989 at prom?” in reference to an album by Taylor Swift, Ellie’s favorite singer.
He also attended a Taylor Swift concert with her.
Everything from meeting Pitsenberger, who was a manager for the Eastern basketball team, to becoming buddies with Cummins to his prom date with Meredith has made him an advocate for the Best Buddies program and for those with intellectual and developmental disabilities in general.
“It was just a life-changing experience,” said Moses, who has a tattoo on his left arm that in part reads “the only disability in life is a bad attitude.” “Some people take things for granted. You get with them, and everything makes them happy. This made them happy, just me being here. The little things make them happy.”
Though he’s now moved to Muncie, Moses still talks with Pitsenberger, Cummins and Meredith several times a week.
They also provided some of his inspiration to go to Ball State — he had a dozen scholarship offers — a college he chose in part because of its quality special education program. He hopes to become an elementary school special education teacher.
His example of kindness drew admiration from JCHS students — “That was pretty awesome,” said Shelby Caldwell, who was attending her first Best Buddies event, of his prom story.
“I thought we had a great time today,” said Vormohr, “and I hope it just gets them all excited for our upcoming events.”
In exchange for his visit Saturday, the Jay County Best Buddies are planning a trip to Worthen Arena to watch Moses play.
“I’ll be a little scared because I don’t want to mess up,” said Moses, who also hopes to make it to a JCHS game, “but it’ll be good.”