WINDHAM — Since he was a young man, Pat Moody has selflessly given his time, energy, and passion for basketball and supporting young people in an effort to make his hometown of Windham a better community
Sunday night, the town gave that love back to Moody.
More than a thousand people turned out on a chilly night to celebrate Moody. The official reason was the town’s outdoor basketball courts, located next to the public safety building, were being named for Moody, 49, who is battling progressive pancreatic cancer. The real reason they came was because, as one person put it, Pat Moody was everyone’s best friend.
“It’s an honor and privilege to be named for the greatest man to walk this earth,” said Moody’s godson, Chase Patrick Graves. “It’s his selflessness and his ability to do so many things for so many people, both on a large scale and a personal level.”
Windham High boys’ basketball coach Chad Pulkkinen was one of many organizers to put together the event along with Moody’s childhood friend Tyler Graves. The event was supported by dozens of local businesses, contractors, friends, family members, and town officials. Pulkkinen, who played in college at St. Joseph’s and professionally in England, said Moody was his seventh grade basketball coach and years later was the friend and mentor who urged him to apply for the varsity coaching position.
“He believes in kids and he believes in people. Sometimes more than even those kids understand,” Pulkkinen said. “For me, he believed in me when I was a kid. He was my hero growing up. He was a great player and he always had that energy working with the kids and just making kids feel like he’s their friend. He still does. All these people think they’re his best friend. And they are. Because that’s the way he treats people.”
The crowd gathered on the two full-sized courts prior to Moody’s arrival. Moody had been instrumental in getting the courts built when he chaired Windham’s Recreation Advisory Committee from 2015-2020. Moody had also been the president of Windham Youth Basketball. As his son Adrian, a junior at Windham High said, “ever since he’s had an orange ball in his hands,” Pat Moody has loved the game.
Moody was blindfolded and driven to the site. Organizers had kept the event a secret from Moody. When his wife of 24 years and high school sweetheart Sherma raised the blindfold, applause started and Moody’s eyes quickly filled with tears – as they did for many others in attendance.
When the power was thrown and the brand-new lights came on, Moody pumped a fist into the air and let out a “yeah.” One of Moody’s longtime goals was to have these courts lighted. Soon enough, a ball was in his hands, the crowd parted, and Moody made his way toward a basket and swished the first shot taken on the newly named Pat Moody Basketball Courts.
Normally the giver, now he was a grateful receiver. Many people wore t-shirts that had “Moody Courts,” with the date Nov. 3 on them. Others wore green “Pat Moody for President” shirts.
“Everybody I love, all in one place,” Pat Moody said. “Having this dedicated. This is something, this court system, is something we’ve worked on a long time and were finally able to get it put together. To have a surprise like this just rocks me. I look around at the faces of all the people that I really care about.
“This is not something that I’m used to. I normally like to help do this type of thing,” Moody added. “It’s incredibly special.”
Last winter, when Windham High won its first boys’ basketball state championship, with Adrian Moody a starter, there was hope that Moody had beaten cancer. The team was with him in the hospital when he rang the “cancer-free” bell. Unfortunately, “it came back and has metastasized to his liver,” Sherma Moody said.
There is hope a new chemotherapy treatment can reverse the cancer’s spread. If not, the current prognosis gives Moody three-to-six months to live. “Our mantra is Amor Fati,” Sherma Moody said. “It means loving one’s fate.”
Adrian Moody said his father’s ability to connect with others – many people from outside Windham were in attendance – is because “it comes straight from the heart.”
Griffin Moreaux, a 2024 Windham High grad, is the Moody’s neighbor. He said Pat Moody’s willingness to help others and love of community is shared by the whole family, including Sherma and their children Adrian and Hayleigh. Moreaux wrestled in high school and now at the University of Southern Maine. But like so many others, Moreaux played Windham Youth Basketball under Pat Moody’s direction.
“He ran it the most fair way you can. He made it fun for everyone,” Moreaux said.
One project Pat Moody did not get done was his desire to have a community center built in Windham. When the town decided to invest elsewhere, Moody was upset, Pulkkinen said, but not defeated.
Moody built his own community center of sorts, erecting a barn on his property with a half-court basketball court so kids could play indoors in Maine’s cold winters. It has become a destination for basketball players in Windham and surrounding communities.
“We just text him and let him know we’re coming. He’s very inviting,” said Windham High senior basketball player Bailey Ammons.
Grant Coppi, another Windham High senior basketball player, put it simply, “Pat Moody is the kindest man I know. He’s dedicated his life to helping us be better people. Better men. A better community.”
