"She always said at an early age … 'It would kill me to give up one of them,''' Todd Erzen said of his daughter's two sports.Īinsley Erzen said some coaches in the past told her to focus on one sport. This week, she can add to her state track resume. During her junior season, she tallied 19 goals for Carlisle, and through the team's first 11 games this season, she has 22. Erzen has also twice finished third in the state cross country meet. She's won four Drake Relays titles and two state titles in track. In the spring, she'd play high school soccer and run track.Īnd she's found success in all the sports. In the fall, she'd compete in cross country and on her club soccer team. But what made Erzen's story intriguing was that she was doing it at the same time. Having success in multiple sports isn't unheard of in high school. That's what Stone explained to the soccer coaches across the country who were recruiting Erzen. "I don't know a lot of athletes that could do that in one sport, let alone two," said Stone, who has worked with Erzen as the founder of Next Level Soccer, a training, educational and development program. Against the nation's best high school runners, Erzen won the 800 meters with a time of 2:06.52, the top time ever run by an Iowa high school girl. She had been playing since she was 5 and was in love with the sport. Tilus agreed and quickly got her involved with any big meet he could throughout the nation.Įrzen's career was about to progress just as Tilus envisioned.Ī week later, Erzen competed at the Outdoor Nationals at Haywood Field in Eugene, Oregon. She had one request, though: She wanted to keep playing soccer. "It definitely kind of showed me early on the potential that I had and the potential that he saw in me even though I couldn't really see it in myself," Erzen said. Tilus thought it was all possible for Erzen, who had never run competitively before. He laid out a list of things he thought she could eventually accomplish. A day or so later, he showed up at their house to convince Erzen to start competing in running. Tilus ran over to Erzen's parents, who were celebrating the win, and introduced himself. "I'm like, 'There is something ferocious and tenacious about this kid if she's willing to make a move at the point where everyone's normally (running) their slowest lap,'" Tilus recalled thinking. The only person to beat her was a boy a year older than her. Erzen beat every girl and finished second overall. Impressed, Tilus still remembers her scorching time: 5 minutes and 20 seconds. During the third lap of the four-lap race, she distanced herself from the competition like a veteran. But Tilus convinced her to come out for the mile-long race, which included boys and girls in seventh and eighth grade.Įrzen stole the show. She didn't have much interest in running. Dante Smith, senior director of digital marketing, headed the TikTok strategy, in which fans were encouraged to dance to the song’s chorus, which starts with the line “She’s a runner she’s a track star.” Capitol also heavily promoted Mooski in Atlanta during NBA All-Star weekend in March, with multiple performances in one day, and last month he opened the BET Awards pre-show with a performance of the breakthrough hit.Erzen was a middle school soccer star then.
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“It was a long pursuit that got incredibly competitive, but he got a phenomenal deal that reflected his talent and the quality of the song,” says Capitol Records CEO Jeff Vaughn, adding that the first time A&R manager Elizabeth Jones played “Track Star” for him, he knew the song would have a long lifespan.Īfter securing Mooski as the label’s latest signee this February, the team at Capitol - which includes Chris Turner, Senior Director of A&R at Capitol Records, Greg Marella, President of Promotion and EVP of Capitol Music Group, and Bill Evans, EVP of Urban Promotion at Capitol Records - immediately got to work on keeping the song’s momentum going one year after its initial independent release. “I didn’t need anybody in my corner - I wanted them in my corner.” “I’ve been counted out my whole life and I’ve always been successful because I work hard,” he says. But a six-month-long courtship with Capitol Records helped make his decision an easy one.
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He says he felt it coming once celebrities from the likes of La La Anthony and Halle Berry started playing “Track Star” on social media, which led to calls from nearly every major label by the end of last year. Soon after the song’s release in February 2020, Mooski understood something else: he was on his way to securing a major label deal. Mooski photographed on Jat Capitol Records in Los Angeles.