I'm the first to admit I'm a product of my mother. She didn't like sports, so neither did I.
My father would have a football game on TV every Saturday while the rest of us lobbied for him to change the channel. Then one day, he flipped to an FCS game that captivated me for a reason I still can't explain. I stopped, watched and eventually decided I'd like to do that again.
Ever since, sports have been a core part of my identity, leading me to pursue a summer internship with Knox News covering the Knoxville Smokies and One Knox SC at Covenant Health Park.
You've probably seen my byline in recent months, but diving straight into the beat left little time for a formal introduction to readers. I'm Trevor McGee, and I've spent countless hours over the past
17 weeks at the downtown stadium, where the press box has become my office and where playoff baseball returns to Knoxville later this month.
Before the postseason begins, I’ve written a series of stories to help you get to know Smokies players hoping to make history, which seemed like a good time to share a little about myself, too.
My summer with Knox News began in the most bananas way possible, as the barnstorming team from Savannah brought its entertainment tour to Knoxville my first week on the job. A Savannah Bananas story landed in my lap before I even settled into a desk.
Though I started quickly, my internship also began with several delays. The rain held off when the Bananas took the field May 21 at Covenant Health Park, but it seemed to make up for lost time the rest of the week. I tallied 287 minutes of rain delays and four tarp appearances before losing count.
Thankfully, I wasn't entirely new to spending long nights around sports and deadlines.
My journalism career began in middle school after I tried out for three sports and failed to make any of the teams. Realizing my playing days were over before they ever really began, I decided to express my love for sports in another way.
I was fortunate to attend Wilson Central High School in Lebanon, Tennessee, which offered a sports broadcasting program that allowed me to cover everything from football to tennis on air. I developed a dream of becoming an ESPN play-by-play commentator and wrote for our school's sports website, freelancing along the way for local newspapers covering Wilson Central football.
Looking back, I still can’t fathom how I got paid for some of those articles.
My passion for sports eventually led me to the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and inside the orange walls of The Daily Beacon, where editors were convinced enough by my writing to hand me what turned out to be the mother of all beat assignments: the 2024 Tennessee baseball team.
I covered Tennessee’s national championship series from the press box at Charles Schwab Field and then shifted to Neyland Stadium that fall to cover the Vols’ push for a spot in the College Football Playoff. I’ve also been courtside for Tennessee's most successful stretch of men's basketball under Rick Barnes, including two Elite Eight runs.
I've been fortunate to cover sports in some remarkable places, from Knoxville to Omaha. But it's hard to imagine anything topping the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, which I covered for USA TODAY.
Still, some of my most meaningful work has come this summer at Covenant Health Park, where I covered the Smokies clinching the first-half Southern League North title for their first playoff berth since 2011 when the team still played in Kodak. Since then, I’ve spent the season learning about the players behind that accomplishment and how this roster was built for September.
With a Knoxville minor league team searching for its first playoff series win since 1993, my job is about more than telling you what happened on the field. It’s about introducing you to the people who made it possible and showing you what comes next.
I’ll be watching the playoffs closely from the ballpark and sharing stories along the way, which isn’t bad for a kid who once wanted every game turned off. Now, a city that's waited more than 30 years for postseason baseball finally gets to watch again.
Trevor McGee covers the Knoxville Smokies and One Knox SC for Knox News. Email: trevor.mcgee@knoxnews.com; X: @TrevorMcGee12
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: How a kid who hated sports ended up covering playoff baseball in Knoxville | Opinion
