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Soccer player Kelsey Riggs did not pursue this as a profession, but she stuck to sports. The personality we talk about today is a well-known reporter and anchor at ESPN. She was born on November 19, 1988, in Charleston, South Carolina.
Before Kelsey Riggs ESPN career happened, she worked at WCNC-TV in Charlotte. It is here that she covered the Carolina Panthers in Super Bowl 50.
Kelsey Riggs Bio
Born to Bryan and Pan, Rigs attended Charleston Southern University. She has been a soccer player since high school. With her acumen and competitive spirit, she had bagged a soccer scholarship at the University.
Kelsey Riggs Family
While Riggs’ parents live in Charleston, she lives in Connecticut with her cats. She also has two sisters.
She is a firm believer in maintaining a balance between work and life.
Kelsey Riggs personal life
Riggs always loved to watch Soccer as a kid. This also used to be her favorite sport. She also sensed that she liked keeping people around her updated. Informing her friends and acquaintances about various on-goings is one thing that she enjoyed a lot.
When she read the morning news headlines at her school, she realized she wanted to be a journalist. It was an ideal scenario for her when she got her break with Sports News as two of her passions blended in just right.
To her close friends and associates, Riggs is known as an emotional person. Bearing extreme gratitude for her break in ACC/ESPN, Riggs still has the first note card she read after joining. She has mentioned that it reminds her to appreciate what she has and where she has reached.
Women who inspired Riggs
Growing up, several women in sports news inspired Riggs. Some of the personalities who Riggs looked up to were Erin Andrews, Maria Taylor, Holly Rowe, and Allison Williams.
Having grown up watching these women, Riggs feels it’s almost unreal that now she stands a chance to be part of that same group. The other women she also admired are Kris Budden, Sam Ponder, and Molly McGrath.
Riggs also believes there is very little scope for women to face discriminatory behavior in sports news as long as they have done their homework right. According to her, as long as one has deep-seated knowledge about what they are reporting on, nobody can question their merit or expertise. She believes that this exists irrespective of gender.
She once said,
“if you have that background knowledge, then there’s no way that anybody can try to discredit you. You’ve done your homework; you have worked hard . . . and have proven that you deserve to be here.”
Riggs believes that it is of utmost importance that women support women in the game. She finds it repulsive that many consider women fuelling women a myth. She believes that throughout her tenure as a sports journalist, she has always been surrounded by helpful, considerate, and inspiring women.
Kelsey Riggs Career
While studying at Charleston Southern University, Riggs did several internships at local television stations. She busied herself with a hectic schedule that started with early soccer workouts followed by internships.
At the University, she took afternoon classes and then practiced Soccer at the end of the day. After getting a degree in Communications from Charleston Southern University, Riggs decided to remain in Charleston and start her career there.
This was when Kelsey Riggs joined WCSC-TV as a Production Assistant. She worked there for a year and moved to WBTW News 13. She joined the network as a reporter and stayed in that role for roughly 1.5 years.
Towards the end of 2014, Kelsey Riggs moved to the position of Sports Anchor at WBTW News 13. After staying in this role for roughly 2 years, Riggs moved to WCNC-TV. Here she worked as a Sports Anchor and reporter for around 4 years.
In August 2019, Kelsey Riggs ESPN happened. She joined as a Studio Host and Sideline reporter.
ESPN Kelsey Riggs
After spending three years at WCNC-TV, Riggs joined ESPN in 2019. She is an anchor in the studio and reports on the ACC football games.
Riggs has an impressive portfolio as a sports newsperson. She anchored at many sports events, including the Final Four in 2017. She has also hosted two Super Bowls: Super Bowl 50 and Super Bowl LIII.
Before joining WCNC, Kelsey Riggs worked as a reporter with WBTW. During this time, she lived in Myrtle Beach and covered Clemson, NASCAR, the Panthers, and The Masters.
Kelsey joined ESPN in 2012 and occasionally hosts the show “The Huddle” on AACN.
Kelsey Riggs ESPN portfolio
Riggs is involved in various shows and games within ESPN and ACCN.
She hosts All ACC, Nothing But Net, and In-Play from time to time. Riggs also covers college football games as a sideline reporter. She usually works on events when she is not engaged in any of these projects.
She covered the first and second rounds of the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Championship. Riggs hosted an all-female in-studio. During her stint at the Championship, she also played host to eminent sports analysts Andraya Carter and Monica McNutt.
Mentioning her experience working with the analysts, Riggs said,
“It was a blast in the studio with Monica and Andraya-they are incredible…and to be a part of the bigger picture of women’s basketball….and in the studio on Sunday with Coach Andy Landers, Rebecca Lobo, and Sue Bird, it was phenomenal and I still feel like I am on a high from that week”.
She has also filled in multiple times on SportsCenter. The show reports on the latest news, highlights, and inside information from the sports world. The show is also prestigious as it is the debut show of ESPN.
She has also covered many college basketball wraps. She has also worked on multiple digital shows for ESPN. Riggs has also co-hosted multiple Radio shows like Spain, Fitz, and many more.
As a passionate sports journalist, Riggs always shows enthusiasm toward her work. Apart from the roles fixed for her at ACCN, she is always more than happy and willing to take up additional work.
For instance, Riggs worked as a substitute for Chiney Ogwumike on an edition of Chiney & Golic, Jr. on ESPN Radio. She co-hosted the segment with Mike Golic, Jr. During this tenure, Riggs and Golic, Jr. came up with the idea of the show that would eventually be named “Game Notes.”
While visiting her parents, Riggs found some notes that she had written to her friends and then boyfriends as a young girl. When she shared the content of these notes with Goli, Jr., the latter quipped that the hilarious content of those notes would be a great show at some point.
While discussing discovering these fossilized notes, Kelsey said,
“There was something special about writing a note, meeting up with your best friend or boyfriend in the hallway. The nostalgic part of it. I think a lot of people have similar boxes somewhere.”
Kelsey Riggs ESPN Game Notes
In 2021, Riggs and Golic, Jr started with Game Notes. It was much appreciated by viewers, especially women for whom it was like re-living their high school phase.
For someone as strict as Riggs about maintaining her privacy, making Game Notes was a major step for her.
However, some fans also said that the show bore little resemblance or relation to sports and hence was unnecessary.
How Riggs feels about ESPN breakthrough
For Riggs, ESPN was a major breakthrough in her career. She mentioned in an interview that looking at the logo daily while entering the office feels surreal. She believes that through sheer hard work and consistent efforts, she elevated herself to be able to work with ESPN.
Right from the beginning of her journey, she understood the ACC’s value due to her wide-ranging experience in sports news. Working at ACC marked a fairy tale moment in her career. Growing up in Carolina and watching sports so closely from her childhood, she understood how the audience venerated the ACC.
Appreciation from Colleagues
Aaron Katzman, the Coordinating producer at ACCN, once said about Riggs,
“Kelsey has proven herself to be a star in the making with every opportunity she’s earned. Thanks to a dedicated work ethic and willingness to take on assignments at any time, Kelsey has endeared herself to everyone who has had the pleasure of working with her. Her passion, dedication and versatility have allowed her to excel hosting shows across linear, digital, and radio platforms. I can’t wait to watch her career continue to blossom.”
Kelsey Riggs net worth
As per reports, ESPN Kelsey Rigg salary is roughly between $50K-$100K.
As a successful sports journalist, her net worth is estimated to be around $100K to $1 million.
For now, Riggs plans to continue working with ACCN, soar her career, and achieve bigger and greater feats.
With the kind of sports news coverage she has done so far in her career, there is very little doubt that Riggs is on her way to the top!
