Baseball Appalachian's first
baseball team took the field in 1903. The Mountaineers are coached by Kermit Smith. The Mountaineers won regular season conference titles in 1973, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, and 2012. They also won the
Southern Conference baseball tournament in 1984 and most recently on May 18, 2012, the Appalachian State Baseball team beat Western Carolina University, becoming Southern Conference baseball champs.
Men's basketball The head coach of the Appalachian State men's basketball team is currently
Dustin Kerns, previously of the Presbyterian Blue Hose. Notable past coaches include
Press Maravich and
Bobby Cremins. The Mountaineers have appeared in the
NCAA tournament three times,
1979,
2000, and
2021 and appeared in the
National Invitation Tournament in
2007. Appalachian State plays all home basketball games at the
George M. Holmes Convocation Center, having opened in 2000 to replace
Varsity Gymnasium on the campus of Appalachian State University.
Women's basketball The Appalachian State women's basketball team, coached by Angel Elderkin, was one of the top teams in the
Southern Conference, laying claim to six SoCon tournament titles and six regular season championships in a 26-year span. On February 19, 2011, the Appalachian State Mountaineer women's basketball team won the 2011 Southern Conference regular-season title. The last time they had won the title was 1996. This is a first for Head Coach Darcie Vincent. On May 18, 2012, the Appalachian State baseball team beat Western Carolina University, becoming Southern Conference baseball champions for the first time since 1985.
Football The Mountaineers are led by head coach
Dowell Loggains. The
2005,
2006, and
2007 seasons were successful, with the Mountaineers winning three consecutive FCS
national championships. Before Appalachian left the Southern Conference for the Sun Belt Conference and FBS football in 2014, it had developed intense rivalries with fellow conference members
Furman,
Georgia Southern, and
Western Carolina, The
Appalachian–Georgia Southern rivalry continues in FBS, as both teams moved together to the Sun Belt. The Mountaineers and
Catamounts played annually for the
Old Mountain Jug until Appalachian's departure for the Sun Belt. The Mountaineers achieved perhaps their biggest win in program history with a road
upset of the
fifth-ranked Michigan Wolverines,
34–32, on September 1, 2007. With the win Appalachian became the first ever
FCS (I-AA) team to defeat an
AP nationally ranked
FBS (I-A) team. This victory was seen by some analysts to be one of the greatest upsets in NCAA football history. Following the win, they were featured on the cover of the following week's issue of
Sports Illustrated. Numerous players from ASU have gone on to play in the
National Football League. They include Harold Alexander,
Kerry Brown,
Dexter Coakley,
Dino Hackett,
Larry Hand,
Jason Hunter,
Dexter Jackson,
Corey Lynch, Rico Mack,
Marques Murrell,
Mark Royals,
John Settle,
Matt Stevens, Troy Albea,
Daniel Wilcox, and
Armanti Edwards.
Field hockey The women's field hockey team were members of the single-sport
Northern Pacific Field Hockey Conference (NorPac) until that league's demise after the 2014 season, playing the next two seasons as a Division I independent, as the Sun Belt does not sponsor this sport. The Mountaineers joined the
Mid-American Conference as an affiliate starting in 2017.
Wrestling The
Mountaineers wrestling team is coached by JohnMark Bentley and holds their home matches in
Varsity Gymnasium. Notable former Mountaineer wrestlers include former
Olympians – Al Crawford (1948),
Herb Singerman (1968),
Ike Anderson (1988), and Dale Oliver (1988). Former
UFC fighter
Tony Gravely also wrestled for the Mountaineers. Austin Trotman, a former NCAA All-American for the Mountaineers in 2012, is the school's career wins leader with 129 wins. The wrestling team are associate members of the
Southern Conference, as the Sun Belt Conference does not sponsor wrestling.
Softball Other sports The university's cycling team has had success at the regional and national level; they compete within the Atlantic Collegiate Cycling Conference. The team competes in every discipline of
bicycle racing that is acknowledged by
National Collegiate Cycling Association within
USA Cycling. This includes
road bicycle racing,
Mountain bike racing and
Cyclocross. The team won the Division 2, as established by
USA Cycling, collegiate team mountain bike national championships in 2008. They won the Division 2 collegiate team cyclocross national championships in 2008 and 2009. The team is now recognized as a Division 1 team. == Venues ==