Making an Impact: Steve Trout

by Chuck Cascio, Former South Lakes Teacher

Steve Trout

When Steve Trout was in the fourth grade, dinner time was special. Of course he enjoyed the food, but the biggest treat was that he was permitted to leave the table each night at precisely 6:44 p.m. to watch iconic DC sportscaster George Michael's segment on channel NBC4. "I knew what I wanted to do from fourth grade on," Steve says. "That I later got to work for the George Michael Sports Machine was one of those magical full-circle moments."

Over the years Steve consciously chose ways to fulfill that fourth-grader's objective. As a freshman at South Lakes High School in 1990, he started announcing basketball games and continued to do so for all four years at the school. "Tuesdays and Fridays were my favorite days at South Lakes," he says, "because that’s when the basketball teams played. Those nights at the mic were magic--they poured gas on the fire I needed to make my way in this world. I couldn't care less that announcing made me late to almost every Friday night gathering with friends."

However, he acknowledges that meeting with friends around Reston was also an integral part of his life. "Reston is a magical place, and it had a massive impact on who I am," Steve says. "It’s where I learned to accept and to trust people…and to bus a table. It’s where I illegally sledded down the big hills, skipped school to go to TCBY (This Can’t Be Yogurt), and met South Lakes legends like Ms. Liz Knapp and Ms. Sharon Brophy. It’s where I had my first kiss, my first speeding ticket, and my first beer."

A unique experience that impacted Steve's life choices occurred after a South Lakes basketball game he was announcing. "Washington football legend Doc Walker, then a reporter with NBC4, told me he thought I did a great job. He handed me his business card, and I carried that card in my wallet for probably 10 years. That compliment stayed with me—and fueled me—for years.."

After graduating from South Lakes in 1994, Steve majored in journalism at James Madison University and became the sports editor of the student newspaper. His experience led to two summer internships at NBC4. After graduation, he spent a year with the George Michael Sports Machine before moving into on-air roles. “In 1999, I landed my first on-air job as the number-three sports anchor at WVIR-TV in Charlottesville, Va., eventually working my way up to the number-one nightly sports anchor. Naturally, I tried my best to be Central Virginia’s George Michael...but got nowhere close."

The circle that began at Steve’s dinner table in fourth grade closed in 2004. That year, he joined NFL Films as a Supervising Producer and Director—and has since won five Emmy Awards. "I can say without exaggerating that I get up in the morning and I still love what I do. Twenty-one seasons at NFL Films and not one day has felt like work."

Steve lives outside of Philadelphia with his wife, Ali, and their three children, but a recent project brought him briefly back to Reston with his production team to develop a segment of the show "Hard Knocks In Season" about the Washington Commanders. He and his crew stayed at the new JW Marriott at Reston Station on Wiehle Avenue, and the trip flooded Steve with Reston memories that he shared with his coworkers.

“First of all, how crazy is it that there is a JW Marriott in Reston," Steve says. "The window of my hotel room literally looked out over the intersection of Wiehle and Sunset Hills. I used to roller skate up that street, rode my bike on the W&OD trail right there, and spent many a weekend night at what we called the 'McTaco Hut'.” Steve regaled his crew with stories about the area--how the hotel was on the site of his former orthodontist's office (torn down several years ago to make room for what is now Metro Plaza development); that his childhood home, where his mother still lives, was just four minutes away; that Paolo's Restaurant, where he worked for seven years, was then one of only three restaurants in the now bustling Town Center.

Steve says he took his coworkers to dinner at his mother's home, on another night brought her to dinner with them, and one evening, "my mom joined us for drinks!” And then he did something directly related to the circle that had started decades earlier: “I went to a South Lakes girls' basketball game to watch my friend’s daughter play, and the young announcer there killed it! It was all such an amazing collision of my worlds.”