Health Sciences star carrying on legacy of late father

Jerry Sullivan
4 hours ago
7 min read

Just before Christmas, Amir Moye had a joyful conversation with his father, Furmon. They were excited about the holidays, and about the fact that Amir, back on top of his game after missing a year to injury, was closing in on a major basketball milestone.

“Yeah, we were actually talking about 1,000 points,” Moye said last week, “and how we were going to celebrate it. We talked about what we were going to do that night and what was going to happen.”

What happened was every son’s worst nightmare. On the day after Christmas, Furmon Moye died unexpectedly. Amir’s devoted dad was gone too soon, at age 45. There would be no family celebration, only stunned disbelief and sorrow.

Health Science’s game at St. Francis on Dec. 27 was postponed. They played it a week later and Moye scored 35 points, 33 by the end of the third period. It felt as if his father was perched on his shoulder, pushing him forward. Then, on Jan. 6, the day of Furmon’s funeral service, Amir scored 57 points against Burgard, a career high for the Falcons senior and a school single-game scoring record.

“That was my way of saying goodbye to my father,” Moye said. “I’m carrying on his legacy. That 57 points was dedicated to him. It was a hard decision to play. But I felt if my father was there, he would encourage me to play basketball. So I just fought it and played for him. It was very emotional, being 18 and losing my father the day after Christmas. We were spending a lot of time together. Him being gone, it didn’t feel real. It doesn’t feel real to this day.”

On Jan. 10, in an 86-59 win over Middle Early College, Moye scored his 1,000th career point. It was quite an achievement for a kid who had lost his entire junior season to a knee injury. It was also a moving scene for Moye’s coaches, teammates and family, who realized how hard Amir had worked to get back to that point and how he was carrying on after the loss of his father.

“They were a close-knit family; they traveled in AAU basketball,” said Health Sciences head coach Ty Parker. “I can see it vividly in my head, his mom (Latoya) and dad. I see them present, and I loved the way the family was built. They did everything together. These moments are monumental for Amir, and his dad is right there with him. He might not be here in person, but he’s there in spirit. “

“And he’s handled it, very very well,” said Parker, who also coaches the football team and the girls hoop squad at Health Sciences. “I lost my mom three years ago and there’s certain days where it’s difficult for me. Losing his pops at his age and the way he handled it, it shows me how mature a young man he has become. As close as their family was, that was a major blow, and I know how that can affect a younger person.“

You wonder how an 18-year-old can deal with such adversity. Moye has endured more than his share of adversity over the past 18 months. In the summer of 2024, while playing for the Corey Graham Elite on the AAU circuit in Atlanta, Moye tore the ACL in his knee. He spent his junior year rehabilitating his knee, watching helplessly as the Falcons made an inspired run without him.

Health Sciences, led by Nahssan Young, beat a larger Lockport team by 11 in the Section VI Class AA championship game at Buffalo State. The Falcons then dropped a one-point heartbreaker to Greece Athena in the Far West Regional. Moye was there on the sidelines, urging his teammates on, knowing full well that things might have been a lot different if he had been healthy.

“I felt if I was there we would have won, definitely,” Moye said. “It was hard to see us lose by one point. There was tears, from everybody. Even me. Even though I didn’t play, I felt like I was out there. I was coaching them up and doing everything I could. I was proud of them. I’m proud of them to this day. That one point still kills us. We want to fix that mistake.”

The Falcons, who were bumped up to AAA this season (despite having only 480 students), have done a good job thus far. As of Tuesday, they were 8-1 and ranked No. 1 among large schools in the Centercourt poll, ahead of Canisius and St. Joe’s. They’re also ranked first among AAA teams in Section VI. Their only loss was by a point to Niagara Falls in mid-December. “Big Health” faces Canisius in the annual Centercourt Classic on Saturday evening at St. Joe’s.

Health Sciences won consecutive Class B sectional titles and advanced to the state Final Four in 2017-18. That was in the era of Davonte “Ticket” Gaines, who went to Tennessee for two years after high school. Parker calls Gaines a “generational talent” and feels the same about Moye, who has attracted attention from several Division I schools and has an offer from Monmouth.

“I still have Monmouth,” Moye said. “I have Canisius on my mind. I’m trying to weigh my options still. I’m definitely determined. I have some prep schools. I haven’t made up my mind yet.”

For now, there’s unfinished business in high school. Moye, considered the top boys player in the area, is averaging 26.6 points, 5.1 assists and 3.3 steals a game. He’s shooting 62 percent from the field, 37 percent from 3-point range and 80 percent from the line. Young, also a senior, is averaging 15.8 points a game and sinking 48 percent of his three-pointers.

Parker, who played football at Burgard and finished his football career as a 27-year-old at Buffalo State in 2002, has seen some terrific athletes come through the school in his time as coach. He said Moye is one of those rare kids who has the talent and the determination to fulfill his potential on the court and in the classroom

“He’s god-gifted, but he also put the work in,” Parker said. “He was always destined for greatness. We told him, ‘This is the plan, this is where you’re going to be at, but you got to do this on your own’, and he’s done that. He’s been working extremely hard from seventh grade to now. I’m extremely proud of how far he came, based on where he came from. He wasn’t one of those who walk around like he knows he’s good. He put the work in, and it shows that he’s good. A lot of guys are naturally talented, but they don’t put in the work like they should, to be that much better. Amir does that.”

Moye said he was a defensive specialist when he was younger but began to develop offensively in the eighth grade. That’s when he decided to quit football and concentrate on hoops. “That’s when I committed to playing basketball,” Moye recalled. “That’s when I started working out every day, getting up in the morning and going to the King Center early in the morning, like 6 o’clock in the morning, putting in mad work.”

Parker said Dallas Gary, who starred at East and played pro ball overseas, deserves a lot of credit for coaching and training Moye during his middle school days. He said Moye also benefited from the help and wisdom of Falcons assistant Trevor Ruffin, who played at Bennett and spent two years in the NBA.

Young, who transferred from Tapestry, has described Health Sciences as a “big family. Moye says Parker has been like a second father, a constant source of encouragement (and even food) during his recovery from knee surgery. Family matters, and Parker has relationships with many of the families whose children have come to play on his teams at Big Health. Some of those families, like Moye’s, have been in Parker’s life since he was a boy growing up in the city.

“Amir’s grandmother watched me grow up as a young gun,” Parker said. “I knew his mom, his dad, his whole family. We take care of our own. We have a great relationship and I really appreciate that he trusted me the way he did. And his parents trusted me with his basketball career and, really, his life. Because I’m not just molding him to be a basketball player, I’m molding him to be a man through life as well. And he’s receptive to all that, which I’m most appreciative of. Sometimes guys as good as he is, they got the little moxie, you can’t tell them nothing. He always absorbed the knowledge that we gave him.”

Moye was devastated when he tore his ACL in the summer of ’24. But his mentors and his strong family had prepared him for the arduous days and months ahead. He spent his junior year in daily workouts. He was determined to get back to the dynamic player he was before the injury.

“Well, I wanted to go hard at first,” he said. “I did a lot of PT and put in a lot of mad work in my legs. It was a slow process, though. I didn’t expect it to take nine months. I looked up on Google to see how long it takes and it said six to nine months. I thought I would be able to push myself to that six months. I felt if we won that (Far West Regional) game, I would have been able to play.”

Parker would have preferred having Big Health’s star in full health. Moye has bounced back in a big way as a senior. “My knee is 100 percent,” he said. “It’s not bothering me. I’m playing the way I have since I was a freshman. I feel as if the injury was just a bump in the road.”

The Falcons hope that road leads to Binghamton and the state championships. Parker has built a charter school dynasty at Health Sciences. His football team won sectional titles in 2023 and ’24, then lost in the final last fall. The boys hoop squad won the 2024 AA2 title on a last-second steal and assist by Moye. But it has been eight years since the Falcons reached the state Final Four.

Health Sciences went more than two weeks without a game due to a schedule break and the bad weather. They’ll look to validate their No. 1 ranking on Saturday against Canisius in the Centercourt Classic, where the Falcons have been an annual fixture. The ultimate goal, of course, is getting back to the states. Moye and his dad looked forward to celebrating that, too.