Rianna Trexler, a senior Business Administration student-athlete at LHU, has found herself unexpected success on TikTok, amassing 484.7K followers on the platform as of Feb. 16. She sat down for a chat about softball, boxing, being a student-athlete, and TikTok.
Over the past few seasons, it seems as though the LHU softball team has found themselves in a bit of a “Covid-slump.” In 2019, the team had a 52 game season, winning 63% of these games.
Once the coronavirus pandemic came about, the team dropped its win percentage to 31% in the 2021 season, and has been climbing back up since.
Trexler was not a part of the 2019 season, as she was an athlete at a different college, but has hopes that the present upswing in the team’s performance will continue, stating, “We have really been working hard and added some great players to the 2023 squad. We are coming together as a team and working well together. I am very excited for this season and believe that this team is going to do great things.”
Traditionally, the LHU softball team does a decent amount of traveling outside of the state for competition, with her most anticipated tournaments being the upcoming Bear Bash II, hosted by Lenoir-Rhyne in Hickory, N.C. at the end of February, and the PFX Tournament scheduled to occur mid-March in Winter Garden, Fl.
For student-athletes, college can be an overall different experience due to the complex schedule they can have. Ideally, a student-athlete should still aim to have the best college experience possible. On TikTok, Trexler has made videos about obtaining balance.
“If you aren’t enjoying your experience, don’t be afraid to try something new. I was terrified to transfer but overall, I am happier and met some of my best friends.”
Unfortunately, Trexler transferred to LHU right before the start of the 2021 season, making her ineligible until 2022. Looking to fill her time and stay active, she found the LHU Boxing Club.
“I have always been a fan of MMA and boxing and wanted to try it out,” she said. “It’s a heavily disciplined sport, but led me to meeting some great people and learning valuable life lessons.”
Boxing not only brought her friendship and life lessons–it brought her a large TikTok following. “I found that posting boxing videos and comedic content grew my platform,” she explained. “I’ve noticed that my most successful videos are me boxing to popular music.”
As a student-athlete, having a platform like Trexler’s can be a challenge, thanks to the NCAA Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policy. However, the NCAA changed their NIL policy going into the fall 2021 semester. Originally, student-athletes were not allowed, under any circumstances, to benefit financially off of their name, image, and likeness. Across the country, student-athletes found themselves feeling disenfranchised.
Trexler’s platform “blew up” prior to the change in the NIL policy.
“Because of this and being in-season I have stopped posting daily and only post once in a while. After graduation I plan to pick up where I left off and expand my profile.”
However, for her, the updated NIL policy has still been able to bring her some success, namely from David Portnoy’s Barstool Sports.
“Barstool posted one of my boxing videos to their Instagram page and DM’d me asking if I would like to be a part of their program. I thought it was an amazing opportunity and became a barstool athlete.”
