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 Ģ������ƵStories      October 27, 2025

By Cam Adams

The energy inside the then-Time Warner Cable arena in Charlotte was electric.

The Hornets moniker had returned to the Queen City. The arena was graced with the teal and purple that Charlotteans had adored for years before the original Hornets relocated to New Orleans and the Bobcats moved in.

But back in Jefferson, Austin Blevins, fresh out of high school football practice, had his eyes glued to the TV. Nothing else mattered that day in 2014, and it all boiled down to Kemba Walker taking a shot in the final seconds of overtime on opening night.

Walker went to his right, weaved to his left, took a step back and shot. Swish. For the first time since 2002, the Charlotte Hornets won. That’s a scene that plays in Blevins head over and over again.

Now, the Ģ������Ƶ alumnus is helping make memories like those as an account executive for his childhood team.

“There's a lot of pinch-myself-type moments,” Blevins said. “It's something that I try to not take any day for granted because it was a lifelong dream to do this, and the opportunity to be here, represent the university, represent my family, that sort of thing, I take a lot of pride in that.”

Blevins is a 2020 graduate of WCU, entering the workforce at an obviously challenging time. After working a summer internship with the Asheville Tourists, Blevins spent over a year at Old Craft Timberworks as a marketing specialist.

He finally got his start in the full-time sports world almost two years after graduating, taking a job as an account manager with the Columbia Fireflies, a minor league baseball team in South Carolina.

His job in Charlotte is a bit more refined than the one in Columbia, focusing more on sales than ticketing and any other hats the Fireflies had him wear. However, his transition to his new position was quite complicated. 

As he was interviewing with the Hornets, the Fireflies were making their first run at the playoffs and he had just days left on his lease. Blevins got the offer, and in a week’s time, he was set up in an apartment in Charlotte — and he still got to witness the Fireflies’ historic playoff push.

“It's one of those things where you get the offer over the phone, and I was trying to be professional and not just scream and jump up and down and holler and that kind of thing, but deep down, it's like 'Man, I'm doing it,’” Blevins said.

In his short time with the Hornets, Blevins has already been thrown into the thick of it. As the NBA regular season draws closer, companies are calling to get tickets for their employees and clients.

The new gig has come with some perks, too, as Blevins got to see the team’s new uniforms before they were unveiled to the public. Not only that, but he’s seeing the Hornets make a difference.

The team held a community event at Riverview Community Center in Creston, just a stone’s throw away from his hometown of Jefferson, giving back from devastation from Hurricane Helene.

That meant quite a lot for the Ashe County native, so much so that he wrote a note to Shelly Cayette-Weston, the Charlotte Hornets’ president of business operations.

“I said 'Thank you for what you're doing. This impacts me directly as a lifelong Carolinian,’” Blevins said. “I spent my whole life in North and South Carolina, a combination of the two, and to have your hometown team and the franchise you're working for also impact your community is really something.”

Throughout his young career, Blevins said he’s had a lot of valuable mentors, and they all started at WCU. Blevins credits College of Business professors like Charles Parrish, Kadence Otto and Scott Rader for giving him the knowledge he needed to excel in the field. 

“The College of Business does a great job of really preparing people, so that when they do graduate and they hit the work force, they understand what that corporate setting looks like,” Blevins said.

“They understand, from a sports perspective, what the industry standards are and what the expectation is, and that way, you know what you're kind of walking into.”

And the personal touch Blevins received at Ģ������Ƶwas invaluable. 

“The biggest thing is just the amount of investment that my professors invested in me personally,” Blevins said. “They understood my clear mission and what I was wanting to do, and they were giving me the tools to make it and giving me the advice and expertise to kind of meander that new world.”