Columbia, SC (WLTX) - Just a few years ago, Heath Ashley was is sales. He worked in a corporate office, doing corporate sales work.
"I've got 19 years of sales experience, and uh, I don't miss that at all," recalls Heath.
He still works hard, only now he's traded in a suit and tie, and on any given day, you can find him fixing the things that entertain us.
Heath explains, "My job is to repair amusements. Pinball machines, arcades games, claws, anything fun that breaks, I'll fix it."
He only wishes he's discovered it long before all those years in an office.
"I didn't know I could do that. If I knew I could de that I would've started to do it in my 20's," Heath laughs.
But now, he loves what he does.
Heath says, "My customers go from having a broken game to having a fixed game. So obviously that puts a smile on their face. Whatever makes them happy makes me happy. I loves being like, your game is fixed, high five, let play, I'll play against you."
But that's only part of Heath "life curve." When he's not fixing arcade and pinball machines, you can still find him around pinball machines. Practicing for pinball tournaments. However, his pinball dreams started with a hard dose of humility.
"It was 2014 and I'm like yeah, I'm gonna show these guys how to play pinball... And I lost. I got last place. I was like, oh no," he says.
But his love for the game, and his determination, along with some raw pinball talent, paid off. In 2016, Heath won the South Carolina State Pinball Championship.
"It took me two years of practicing real hard to get that high up... When I first caught the fever in 2014, I would practice for three hours a day," Heath remembers.
Even now, with a state championship under his belt, He admits there is still a lot to learn.
Heath say, "I'm only ranked 1,250 right now, out of 55,000. The guys that are ranked above me are exponentially better than me, exponentially better than me! So I learn something every time I play too."
He says the key to becoming a great pinballer is to play as many different machines as possible. And repairing gaming machines as a career, gives him the opportunity to practice on every machine his fixing. To make sure they're working properly... after he fixes them, of course.
Heath jokes, "I never would've thought when I grew up I'd be having transistors and capacitors in my pocket."
And he says he wouldn't have it any other way.
"Man I'm living the dream. When I wake up, I go around fixing pinball machines that are broken. And then after work I try to go break high scores. I try to be the best player at least in the state," Heath says.
After getting 7th place in the 2017 State Championships in what he calls a "heartbreak," Heath hopes to regain his title on January 20th at the tournament in Fountain Inn, S.C.