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Strelow Named as Director of Strategic Communications for Appalachian State Athletics

Bret Strelow has been named a director for strategic communications at Appalachian State University, director of athletics Doug Gillin announced Tuesday.

With his extensive background as a writer and storyteller, Strelow will serve as a leading content producer on various platforms, including App State’s athletics web site. He will act as a secondary communications officer and media contact for the Mountaineers’ football program and also work as the primary contact for some of App State’s other 20 sports. Additionally, he will share the stories behind influential people within the Appalachian community and contribute to social media.

“Bret’s writing background is exactly what we were looking for in this position,” Gillin said. “Our goal at App State is to continue to tell the amazing stories about our student-athletes, department and university.  We need to continue to produce our own compelling content and distribute it to our fans, the community, the state, region and the nation. We are thrilled to have Bret here at App and be able to effectively cover our student-athletes and athletic department.” 

Prior to joining Appalachian State’s strategic communications staff, Strelow worked in sports media as a newspaper writer and reporter for 20 years, including the last one as the Boone-based App State beat writer for the Winston-Salem Journal. He covered the Mountaineers’ overtime football game at Tennessee less than two weeks after starting with the Journal, provided in-depth coverage of Miami’s historic visit to Kidd Brewer Stadium and traveled to all of App State’s football games, including its title-clinching trip to New Mexico State.

Before relocating to Boone, Strelow worked at the Salisbury Post from 2001-10 and The Fayetteville Observer from 2010-16. He wrote about college, professional and high school sports in Salisbury, covering many App State football games during its run to three consecutive FCS national championships, and wrote primarily about ACC basketball and football as a Triangle-based reporter for the Fayetteville newspaper.

The N.C. Press Association has recognized Strelow with six state writing awards. The Associated Press Sports Editors organization has recognized him with five national writing awards since 2012, honoring him for column writing, feature writing, beat writing, explanatory writing and projects. Those awards included a first-place national honor for Strelow and co-worker Stephen Schramm for a 2015 project on historic basketball gyms in North Carolina.

A native of nearby Claremont, N.C., Strelow graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001.