Biography
April 21, 2015
Rachel King Profile
Kirstie Fleger
A BELOVED SPORT OF ITS OWN
When students think of sports at Appalachian State University they think of football, but when Rachel King thinks of Appalachian athletics, she thinks of wrestling. The intense moments when a wrestler has their opponent on the mat with their shoulders about to touch for a pin is more exciting to King than a 60-yard punt return. The accumulation of several minutes of riding time is more sweet a victory than a blowout game. Now in her third year as manager, King is very thankful for the opportunity she was given. “I love being a part of the team and connecting with the community of Boone over our love for the sport,” she said. King runs online stats for the Mountaineers, which allows people who are unable to make it to the match keep up with how it is progressing.
Like football, wrestling has a large community itself within the town of Boone and throughout the country. Big rivalries can draw large crowds and the atmosphere is incredible with people practically sitting on the edges of the mat, shouting and cheering as loud as they can. “When people are into wrestling they love it. It’s an obsession.” Those people are at every match and King loves talking stats with them. “It’s my job to keep up with other schools around the conference that are wrestling at the same time so I love when I get to talk to people about the match-ups. It makes me feel closer to the people who are big supporters of the team.”
Wrestling has also helped her grow as a person and better develop responsibilities and business skill management. For example, King has the responsibility of communicating effectively by running the online scoreboard, as she is the only one that knows how to run it. The scoreboard allows people all over the country to stay in touch with Appalachian Wrestling and stay up-to-date on what is happening during the match. Without King running the live scoreboard on the school’s athletic website and Twitter, half of the information would be missing. In the case that a problem like that was to occur, King would have to act quickly to figure out the issue and resolve it seamlessly. As a public relations major and general business minor, King hopes to take the skills she is learning as manager with her throughout her career. She hopes to continue to stay involved with sports and is grateful that wrestling gives her the experience to follow her dream of working with a professional team one day.