After four years of devoting every spare moment she had to the Lady Vols softball team, this past year of focusing solely on academics gave graduating master’s student Rylie West the chance to dive deeper into her studies and gain even more real-world experience in journalism and media.
West graduated this semester after completing the accelerated Four Plus One program offered through the School of Journalism and Media and the College of Communication and Information, which lets students earn an undergraduate and master’s degree in just five years. She said the accelerated program was exactly what she needed to round out her skills and give her another layer of confidence before she enters the world of sports broadcasting.
“I was feeling prepared to go into the real world, but my entire confidence comes from preparation. So, I thought I could be even more prepared. I was looking into the options and doing the one year was perfect; it was an introduction into what life was like without playing a sport,” West said.
At the beginning of her graduate program, she learned everything about videography, from camera settings to creating packages and finessing her editing. She worked on several projects that put her in front of and behind a camera or a microphone, including a cohort project focused on the opioid epidemic, a podcast she created herself, and a Land Grant Films full-length documentary about Tennessee baseball outfielder Hunter Ensley.
“On the other side, I finally was able to improve my writing skills by doing literature reviews and stuff you don’t touch on in undergrad. Although it’s long and painful to write 20-plus page papers, I think it helped my explaining and researching skills,” she said.
Working on that documentary allowed West to improve at interviewing, and it almost tempted her to enter the world of scripted nonfiction work versus broadcasting. But there’s an alluring aspect of live television that parallels to being an elite athlete, and she is sticking with her original plan to become an on-air personality.
“The documentary definitely made me second-guess being on air because I learned that the reason I like the on-air interview aspect, the reporter aspect, is that you get to ask athletes questions. And being an athlete my whole life, I understand everything behind the scenes and what it is like,” she said. “But I love the thrill of being on air, on camera asking questions—it brings me the same thrill as playing a game,” she said.
Ever shooting for great heights, West said she hopes to find a position covering sports on a national level. In addition to course projects, she’s been honing her skills by working with the SEC Network this past year, calling several University of Tennessee, Knoxville, softball games. She would like to emulate past UT female athletes such as Andraya Carter and Madison Shipman, who both called SEC games before going on to work for national sports media outlets, including ESPN.
As a softball player, West said she wanted to play for a university that valued women’s sports. When she was just a high school freshman touring Rocky Top, she saw that Lady Vols Coach Pat Hill’s impact on Tennessee Athletics created an enduring legacy of elevating women’s sports in a way West said she didn’t observe at other universities. As an aspiring broadcaster, West also knew that her connection to an SEC school would open doors for the career she wants.
“My best connections are here in Knoxville, with Tennessee Athletics. I think the SEC is slowly turning into the NCAA, adding Oklahoma and adding Texas—it’s not just a conference, it’s the face of college sports. So, having my name attached to the SEC and calling games for the SEC, and being a Lady Vol, will provide me so many opportunities,” she said. “It helps me to get my foot in the door, because if you have played at the highest level, you have to know your stuff.”
While sports created connections for West and gave her a unique understanding of what life is like behind the scenes for athletes and teams, she said the opportunities at CCI and the School of Journalism and Media gave her knowledge and skills to move confidently forward in her profession. She said faculty and staff at CCI truly care about students and was impressed by the length they would go to give them everything they needed to learn, sometimes even hosting an entire workshop just to answer one student’s question.
Throughout her time at UT, West credits all the people around her—coaches, advisors, teammates, instructors—with creating the opportunities and environment necessary for her to grow into who she is today. As they pushed and supported her, she rose to the challenge and was named a Torchbearer in 2024, an award that recognizes the recipients’ Volunteer spirit and is considered the highest honor an undergraduate at UT can receive.
As she goes into the world with these achievements and with aspirations to rise to the top of her field, West said she will carry with her the responsibility of being a Torchbearer and a Volunteer.
“I have a role to continue to promote and uplift women’s sports, and as a journalist that’s a role I’m now in to highlight women’s sports in the most positive and best way. They are so phenomenal and just as good of athletes as men,” she said. “My role as a Torchbearer and passing on the torch and leading the way for others, I can do that in the same way for sport. Whether that’s soccer, volleyball, anyway I can do that, it’s my next duty and that’s my role as a journalist.”
