From Reporting On The Sidelines to Coaching On The Field

2021 Sports Journalism Institute (SJI) alum, Trevor Trout, stepped away from the media industry, but transitioned to a different realm of sports as a defensive tackles coach for Hampton University football.
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Trout graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a degree in journalism from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. After graduation, he still continued his journey in media, but journalism wasn’t the only path for him, and he made his transition into coaching towards the end of 2024.

While at USC, Trout was a defensive lineman for the Trojans until his career-ending injury in 2020, but sports had always been a part of his life.

Before representing the Trojans’ football program, his interest in sports journalism was sparked as a kid by watching shows like "The Herd" with Colin Cowherd during his high school lunch periods. 

Trout started his own platform, Elite Media Group, in college, which was eventually acquired by Spotify.'“I always knew I was going to do something around entertainment,” Trout said. “I saw the power of being able to tell the story, and also being able to help someone tell their story, and that's something that was valued heavily at that time.”

“I always knew I was going to do something around entertainment,” Trout said. “I saw the power of being able to tell the story, and also being able to help someone tell their story, and that's something that was valued heavily at that time.”

His time with SJI came during his junior year of college, when he was the first SJI intern at Fox Sports. 

While still in college, he got his first real job from Josiah Johnson at Wave Sports and Entertainment. Trout then moved to Klutch Sports United Talent Agency and later returned to the media industry for a brief period before deciding it was time for another change. 

“I saw the shift within our space and how everything was going, and I saw a lot of changes,”  Trout said. “I figured number one is the media thing really is going to always be there, but you won’t always have an opportunity to go coach Division I football.”

Even though Trout had a strong love of the game of football, coaching was never a role he had in mind. The opportunity fell into his lap at Sacramento State as a graduate assistant for a year before he made his way to the East Coast to Hampton University. 

It was obvious that Trout was a former athlete, and it made him feel different working in the media space. Football was the way for him to be free and be himself, and he found both familiarity and comfortability in coaching. His ability and opportunity to help young athletes, like he once was, drives him to strive in the field.‍

“I didn't have to be the 6 '4, 300 pound nose guard in the room anymore,” expressed Trout, comparing being a coach to proving himself in the entertainment space. “You have to fight for that type of respect, and also understand that everything that you do is going to be put under a magnifying glass simply because people feel that you didn't earn it because you played a sport.”

Now a full-time coach, Trout still draws on the skills he learned in journalism when he has to create presentations and put together reports, because college athletes require their own language.

It was a unique path for him, because it was nontraditional and it was his own journey. He shares the same message about nonlinear careers, whether he’s advising his athletes or speaking to younger generations in general. 

“Everything is about timing, opportunity, and just knowing when to strike, knowing when to shift,” Trout said, “and knowing when to make a change because you never know what's going to happen.”