Appalachian State University was once a big-time school for soccer in the 70s and 80s. Most of that got pushed to the side as time went on and people have seemingly forgotten about the rich history that Appalachian State holds in the world of college soccer.
Before I read Jesses Wood’s article on the history of the Appalachian State I had very little prior knowledge on the subject of Appalachian State soccer. One of the things I did know about was how sports like soccer can have all the success and still get pushed to the side of American football. I agreed with the statement made in the article about how football is king and takes most of the attention away from other sports at the end of the day. We still see that today in the business side of college sports with how nonfootball sports are portrayed in the media.
A lot of this article was new to me and I learned a lot about the history of Appalachian State soccer. Knowing today that there is not a men’s soccer team at App State anymore, It was interesting to see how App beat teams like UNC back in the day and was able to compete with the best and sell out their stadium. What was also new to me was the slow movement of the soccer stadium away from campus, this seemed to isolate the soccer teams more and more. It is making more sense to me now why there is less of an emphasis on soccer today and the history of the team. It seems like the school just did not care for it as it was not bringing in the same amounts of money as football was.
This was a fun article for me to read because I was able to learn about a history that I did not know existed and got to learn more about how football became king for App State. Knowing how the soccer culture is around Boone today I think a men’s team would do well in the business side because there is a rise in popularity across the country and there is also a strong fan base for most App State sports no matter what it is.
