Class of 2021 expands to a record 17 students

The Sports Journalism’s Class of 2021 is one for the record books.

Sixteen students were in last year’s class, which at the time was SJI’s largest class. The Class of 2021 was announced in January with 16 participants, but that number has now grown to 17 with the addition of Trevor Trout of the University of Southern California. Trout, a senior, started his USC career as a member of the Trojans’ football team, but injuries have since curtailed his participation.

“I first noticed Trevor not because of his size of his football ability but because of his journalism major,” said Tim Tessalone, USC’s long-time football sports information director. “It didn’t take long to judge his writing ability. During this summer’s national civil unrest, Trevor weighed in with a compelling first-person account of his experience growing up as a Black youngster in Ferguson, Mo., and the systemic racism he has observed in his life. The story moved me.”

Trout’s interest in sports journalism didn’t stop with writing. Last summer, he told Tessalone he’d like to learn more about the sports information profession to broaden his view of the industry.

“His desire to participate in the Sports Journalism Institute is yet another example of Trevor’s vision for his future,” Tessalone said. “He’s a talented young journalist willing to use his voice to explore the world and tell stories.”

He will get that chance at SJI’s boot camp (held in partnership with Arizona State University) and at FoxSports, which will be hosting its first SJI intern.

NOTE: SJI thanks its sponsors, including the Gannett Foundation and Gannett family of newspapers and digital centers, for making this record-setting class possible. Six Gannett papers serve as 2021 intern hosts—USA Today, The Tennessean, Memphis Commercial-Appeal, Knoxville News-Sentinel, Louisville Courier-Journal Tuscaloosa News. Other partners and funders include Disney and ESPN, which is also an intern host. This is SJI’s 29th class.

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