Topic: Athletics

With a track record and style that are ideal fits for Appalachian State's high-scoring, championship-winning program, Eliah Drinkwitz has agreed to become the Mountaineers' next head football coach. Drinkwitz, 35, has been the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for record-setting NC State teams the past three seasons, as he joined the Wolfpack after excelling in a similar role at Group of Five conference power Boise State.

Hosting the first Sun Belt Conference Championship Game, App State won 30-19 against Louisiana to claim its third straight league title and earn an automatic bid to face a Conference USA team in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl on Dec. 15.

The winner of the inaugural Sun Belt Conference Football Championship Game will be headed to New Orleans, as the league announced Friday that the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl will host the winning team for its game on Dec. 15.

What started as a way for Tim Nestor to make some extra cash while he was a student, active in intramural sports at Appalachian State, turned into a 30-year career — most of which has run congruently with another career.

In recognizing the thousands of women who played varsity sports over the years, Appalachian honored the trailblazers of women’s intercollegiate varsity sports with a ceremony on Friday, Sept. 21. The ceremony was for the current and former student-athletes in women’s field hockey, track and field, cross country, volleyball, soccer, tennis, golf, basketball, softball, cheer and the discontinued varsity sports of gymnastics, swimming and rifle.

This year, Appalachian State University is celebrating 50 years of women’s varsity sports. Appalachian student newspapers from the time show that the university had impressive and competitive female club and intramural teams for quite a few years before the women’s field hockey team in 1968 became the first-ever women’s intercollegiate sport in Black and Gold history.