Meet FOX 13's Scott Smith

And welcome to all of our streamers, everybody dialing us up here on the Fox Local app and fox13news.com. Here we are in Studio B again with our Fox folks, and look who we have. I feel so privileged to be sitting down with Mark Wilson. I don't know if I'm going to like what's going to take place over the next few minutes here. I did dig into your inner circle a little bit, so we're going to have some fun. We're doing this unscripted Fox folks edition. Because I know many of you have some questions. We all have questions. But we just thought we'd put each other in the hot seat. And, yeah, no, so this is fun. But, you know, we just get a little bit of a behind-the-scenes get-to-know. I was shocked when I, because it feels like you've been here, like me. You know, I've been here a while. I still feel like a kid here. But you've been here how long now? It's been a decade. That's amazing to me. It's been 10 years. I know. It has flown by. The markers have kind of been my kids. When we moved here to town, I had a 2-1⁄2-year-old and a 6-month-old. And now one is in eighth grade and one is in sixth grade. So time has flown by, but it has been a wonderful place to be. Well, you have earned your rightful spot. I tell you what, you've done some great work here. We're honored to have you. And you've kind of spanned the country here. San Jose, California, that's where it all started for you, huh? That's what I claim is my hometown. So I was actually born in Salem, Oregon, and lived up in Oregon for the first seven years of my life. But all my formative years. We're in the other Bay Area. So, yeah, San Jose. But, man, you know how this profession is. Sure. You bounce around. You have to have a willingness to go anywhere. And that kind of started early in my life. So, yeah, San Jose's home. We still have a bunch of family back there. Mom, Dad live out there. Siblings, my brother's in Sacramento, but my sister lives in San Jose still. So there's a bunch of families still out there. We try to make a trip out there maybe once a year, usually around the holidays. So Salem explains all the loud noises we hear when the Ducks are playing. All the extra quacking. That would explain that. My dad's a U of O guy. I have aunts and uncles that went to U of O. It was the team that I just kind of fell in love with from a college standpoint. They were that little engine that could for so long. And usually couldn't for most of the childhood. And then, you know, the Nike money came in, and now it's like the team du jour. Now it's a machine. Yeah, all the jerseys and all that stuff. But, yes, my fandom precedes that, just to make note. But, yeah, so big Oregon Ducks fan. Sure. Well, let's back up a bit, if you don't mind, because, you know, I'd love to know the why. Thank And you know I'm a big sports fan, so we've always had that in common. And I remember way back when, I went to Florida State because I wanted to do sports, right? And I get to one of the best schools in the country. I was there in the late 80s, early 90s, and I'm running around on the field with my camera, and I'm missing touchdowns. And I literally had this moment where I zoom into the crowd and miss the touchdown. you. I'm trying to get a crowd shot with that Sony M7, those three-quarter cameras our old schoolers will remember. And here I am thinking I'm having the time of my life. You know, I'm at my dream school, I'm shooting sports, and I'm missing everything, and I'm miserable. And I miraculously happened to zoom in, and I had no idea where my brother, my roommate, and my girlfriend were sitting. I literally zoomed in and I saw them. And in the viewfinder, they're having the time of their lives. And I thought, what if I got this wrong? What am I doing? And that's literally how I went. I'm like, I'm done, I'm going to enjoy sports. I'm going to get into news. So I respect you for hanging in there. So many of us have gone down that road and realized, you know what? Maybe it's not so much fun on the other side and seeing how the sausage is made. So much of my experiences in taking in games is had from a press box. And people just don't seem to understand that. A press box experience is completely different from going to a game, tailgating with friends. Cheering your team on. The press box is silent. And you are to be an objective observer of all that is going on. So the fan in you can be squashed. But, you know, I still try to go to games as a fan from time to time. Uh, yes, to keep the joy alive, but yeah, it can be one of those things where you feel like you're, you're working the sport rather than really being able to sit back and enjoy what you grew up watching and loving and all that kind of stuff. So you have to find a way to kind of curate it still, I think, you know, to, to find time to get away, take the family to the ballpark, go with some buddies, do that kind of stuff on your own. And that is a completely different experience because once a game starts, you know, I'm How am I going to tell the story of this game? What are the main storylines? You know, what are the questions I'm going to be asking these guys? What am I going to ask Baker? So, yeah, exactly. He's not going to like that question. Maybe I can soften that question. So, like, yeah, you're always kind of thinking methodically through the game. Not as a fan, but as how do I digest the information and able to tell the viewer at home exactly what went down and give them a sense of it. And I'm sure it's a little frustrating because I've experienced this. I tell people we've had the luck and joy of we've had World Series here. We've had, of course, the Stanley Cup runs, two different levels of them. Then we've had several Buccaneers championships here and Super Bowls as well when the Bucs aren't even in it. And over the years, of course, of just talking to people, me coming there, well, you guys, you're so lucky. And I'm thinking, yeah. And, like, they look at me like, what are you doing? Like, I generally don't think, especially today with the amount of pressure that's on you guys to turn for every single show, that people really understand there's about that much fun in it because it's all work. There tends to be. You know, I do still look at it like, you know, I have to kind of give myself the 30,000-foot view of it. Like, at the end of the day, what am I doing? I'm watching sports and I'm, I'm conveying what I witnessed. I'm in, I'm kind of in between with the opportunity to interview folks. And so at the end of it, like the topic is not heavy typically. Um, and that's kind of where I feel best to operate. You know, like I, I have dabbled on the news side of things and it felt like I was, you know, uh, struggling to, to Tread water. You have to keep a lot of that out of your head, for sure. On the sports side of things, it is. There is a sense where kind of the joy, the youthful exuberance for sports can be taken away. It's a job like anything else. And I think that that's what this particular profession has taught me. That no matter what you do, even if kids are told from a young age, go pursue your dreams. Go chase after it. But everything can turn into a job. Everything has an expectation and requirements and a certain standard that you have to meet. And it's going to usually take you longer to do things. You're going to have to have long days, long nights, and work on holidays, things like that. Things are required of you. But at the end of the day, like the... The picture that I get to paint is one that hopefully is a joy for people that are on the receiving end of that. And that's not to say that I still don't take joy in it. Trust me, I do. I mean, some of my best memories of sports are the ones that I was actually covering. And, you know, like I think back to the World Series and kind of the COVID year Arlington Globe Life Field. And I'm sitting there in center field preparing, you know, to do the drudgery of talking about it on TV. Right. And, you know, I'm preparing to do my live shot because the game's about to end at any moment in time. And Brett Phillips gets up there and wants to create some magic. And I just turn around and I'm like watching this thing unfold and him doing the airplane out in center field. I'm like, this is incredible. Like, and you're just kind of, you do become a fan. You start cheering in the moment like, wow, this is so great. I've had moments like that where you're just like, okay, this is a job. Yes, they're paying me to do this, but it can be fun too, and it's okay to smile. It's okay to enjoy it. Well, the viewers appreciate that when they see you're invested in it, because you have to be to a certain extent. Let me back up, because I want your why, and I know you were broadcasting from a young age. I don't know about that. Didn't I hear, didn't you do some Little League announcing? Is that where it kind of started? Is that where you got the bug? Well, look. As many of us in this field, we are want for attention, and so that was kind of, I think as a young boy, everything about life to me boiled down to, like, I want to be funny, and I want to be around people that are funny, and so attention was one of those things that was like a vacuum. In my soul, I just needed it in some way. And I've learned over the years that sometimes you desire enough attention, you're going to get some negative attention as well. You've got to temper that. You've got to learn humility. You've got to learn all that stuff. Thank But yes, at a young age, I was given the opportunity at a Little League field to just announce games. And I'm not doing play-by-play. I'm just announcing batters. you And most of the kids that I'm announcing were my buddies. So I'm giving him nicknames and I'm whispering into the mic and being, very you know, doing that reaction, right? Silly things. Yes. But, and, and just keep in score, learn how to keep a book, learn how to manage the scoreboard. much. And, I mean, my salary, Mark, it was a hot dog, a Coke, and I believe about $10. Some Cracker Jacks, maybe? Per game. And it was like, can life get better? I mean, I'm starting on third base, baby, quite literally. So, yeah, that was a nice little foray into it. I honestly never thought, like, I'm going to pursue this as a profession. I'm going to be talking on TV and all that kind of stuff. That was not kind of in my purview at that point in time. But I just love sports. I love to be around the ball field. I grew up on a little league field, so it just made sense. Yeah. Well, let's talk about how you got there. A number of different stops, of course. And in D.C., what an incredible sports market that was, I'm sure. Stay tuned. We're going to be right back with, and I want to hear, best interview and worst. And you've interviewed some of the best athletes on the planet. So I'll put you on the spot here for a little bit. Back with Scott Smith on Fox 13's Unscripted Fox Folks. And welcome back. I feel like a hockey game. We're in periods. The second period now. Coming back with sports director Scott Smith. We're talking about him because that's what we're doing on these Unscripted Fox Folks. Learning a little bit more about our Fox 13 staff. All right. So from Little League announcer, how'd you get into, I know you played football in college too, right? Tell me about that. Yeah, so I had an opportunity, you know, when I graduated high school, did not have great grades, Mark. I never took things seriously. And that was a problem, you know. So I ended up going to junior college with a bunch of buddies out of high school. And I just was going to, I wanted to play baseball. That was like my heart from like a little kid. I just always wanted to play baseball. But in the meantime, I played football in high school and I was decent enough. And so I just decided, you know, I'll play both sports if I can. It's just junior college. How hard could it be? And my first year of junior college football, I actually had a decent season. I was surprisingly too thin. I played defensive end, but I was coming in under 200 pounds. And it's, you know, come on. So, but. We had some guys in front of me, and as the depth chart would, it shook out where they got injured, and I got an opportunity. So I actually had a decent little freshman year, made the most of it. And then I remember walking off the last game of my freshman year, the defensive coordinator came over to me. We're walking off the field together. He puts his arm around me, and he says, and honestly, like it's, you know, I don't know if you've had these experiences where you never really believed what was possible. You never dreamed enough in a certain direction. Until somebody kind of said it into your life, and you're like, really? You think that that's possible? And I remember him telling me, you know, if you come back and have a great sophomore year, I think you'd get a scholarship. And I was like, in football? I'm trying to play baseball. And, you know, I did, I tried to go play baseball my freshman year. It didn't really work out and ended up kind of using up a red shirt, who red shirts in junior college? Nobody except me. So I was like, okay, I'm going to focus all in sophomore year on football, had a decent year, played well. And then, you know, I started to kind of. Put my tapes out there. I was not like a D. I knew I had enough self-awareness to know that I was not a D1 guy. And I wanted a scholarship. I wanted to go out there and try to get a scholarship. And people weren't clamoring and knocking on my door. And I didn't have the money to go to college. So it was really like I had to go make tapes. Yeah. My profession would be one that I would end up making tapes for everything I did. But yeah, sent my tape out to everywhere across the country, all these D2s, and ended up at Harding University. And it was quite the cultural adjustment for me to be in Searcy, Arkansas. I had never been east of California, and so I go out there. And started playing for Harding, and it was a great experience. It really kind of broadened my horizons. It made me leave the nest. It took me completely out of my comfort zone. Met some really good quality people that helped kind of navigate my path for life. And football was a part of that. So I never had any misconceptions about playing beyond college. But it was what I needed. It got me through college, and that was kind of my focus. I had a feeling. That's where a lot of you are growing up. It really happened, right? Yeah. It happened before you were even in the TV business. Interesting. Yeah. No, I mean, I think that, you know, team sports are such a good picture of life, and I think it prepares you for a lot of things. It prepares you for disappointment, and it also, for me, it really gave me a sense of resilience. Like, I always kind of looked at myself as like a scrappy underdog. Like, I wasn't the best player on my high school team. I wasn't the best player on my junior college team. But I was going to try to outwork people and be persistent enough. I'm a man of faith, so I believe that it was not me that opened those doors, but I really feel like with that football experience, I didn't even know what I wanted to do, and I went off to Harding. Um, and I sat down with the counselor one day and he's like, what do you like? I said, well, I watch a lot of TV and, uh, I play football. He's like, what about sports broadcasting? I was like, sure. You know, give it a shot. Hey, I've announced games for hot dogs and Coke. I could do that. So I just started pursuing it. And even, even after I graduated, Mark, I still didn't know what I wanted to do. I kind of had some other wild dreams, but I ended up finding my way into this business. Yeah, you did. Well, you're very good at it. And it's, uh, you make it, you make it sound easy, but I know it's not easy. When was that moment professionally? Then maybe first job when you, when everything's really clicked and you said, wow, I can really do this. I can, gosh, it took way too long. Yeah. I remember, I mean, my first, my first live TV job was cause I, you know, I came back, I graduated school. I laid hardwood floors for the first year. I just, I had no idea of what I wanted to do. I had a resume tape that I put, you know, my last week of like projects together. That's what I had. You know, it was horrible. So I come back, and I ended up just kind of finding odd jobs for about a year. And then I got a job at a high school sports show in the Bay Area to shoot games. You know, of course I lied. He's like, can you shoot on a Canon XL? Yes, of course I can. I'll be there, Friday night football. And I worked there, got an opportunity. Opportunities opened to become a reporter and I enjoyed that. I enjoyed the storytelling aspect, built the tape, went off to Tulsa, Oklahoma for my first live TV job at KO TV, the CBS affiliate there. There and and. I did not know live TV. I didn't know how to budget my time. And it was like the first few months, my news director pulls me in and said, look, man, I'm going to give you about another month to figure this out. And it was at that point where it was like, oh, eyes wide open. Whatever I'm watching people do, if it requires twice as much time for me to do it, then I better put in twice as much time, even if it takes somebody half as much. So that was kind of a real eye-opening opportunity. And then I started to kind of get more reps, put the work in, and then I started to become a little bit more polished, you know, as polished as one could be, if you've seen me. But like, I think that opportunities came after that. And that was where another one of those, it was like the coach putting his arm around me saying like, oh. When I put my tape out there, I'm getting responses. I'm getting engagement for the first time ever. Maybe I can do this. Maybe I can do it. And so, yeah, that's kind of how the confidence part of it grew. But I feel like I'm still like, you know, everybody feels some level of imposter syndrome throughout different pockets of life. And I've certainly felt that. So, D.C. and then to Tampa. Tell me about the transition from D.C. to Tampa. Two different markets, but... You spent a couple years there, right? Yeah, I was in D.C. for three years. That is where my children were born. My wife and I moved out there, and it was exciting to live in a kind of exciting city like D.C. is. Thank And for as much as I loved it, wife maybe not so much, pregnant most of the time we were there. In traffic the rest of the time, right? Yeah, and so... But I have nothing but great memories of my time there. But the opportunity to come here and follow Chip Carter was an opportunity that opened for me. you. And I kind of had some previous kind of interactions with Chip before. We were both on the... You remember Greta Van Susteren? Of course, yeah. So she had a show on Fox, and every once in a while... It was on the record, right? Yeah. Yeah, she would have sports directors on. Different Fox affiliates and we would be debating whatever hot topic, you know, and I found myself squaring off with Chip Carter a couple of times and and, you know, years later. I would end up replacing him, which is kind of bizarre. But the move to Tampa was so great. I mean, this is the best TV station I've ever worked at. And the management and everything and the family aspect of it, I just felt like as soon as I got here, I felt like I was at home, which is such a blessing. Well, and no, you're right. And I appreciate you saying that. We are blessed. We have some great staff here. We've had great management. And Fox has been really good to us, letting us do our thing, not telling us what to do. But at the same time, you came into a great sports market. My goodness, between the Lightning. And then the Rays and the Bucs all kind of peaking for you. I mean, this has got to be a sports director's dream here the last seven or eight years. Yeah. I mean, I think that 2020 year, like right around, you know, obviously the Lightning go on their Stanley Cup run, and then it kind of coincides with the return of Tom Brady here, and I mean, all the... Which still seems so surreal. Well, it was so surreal, Mark, because especially because of the time we were in when we didn't really have direct access to it. And, you know, a lot of our stuff is taking place over Zoom calls. It was like the advent of Zoom, and we're like, okay, this is not ideal. I guess Tom Brady lives in Tampa. How do you unmute yourself? I'm told that Tom Brady lives at Derek Jeter's house, but I've never actually seen him in the flesh. And then he's working out at a high school, right, that we find out about. Yeah, send the Fox helicopter over. No, I think it's real. That was before AI. So, yeah, there has been that little magical run there, and even the Rays were in on that, as I mentioned, in the World Series. Like that was the highest peaking moment across all sports in any type of year that I've ever had is in covering sports that all teams were so exceptional, you know, and obviously the boat parades became iconic. And to be able to even experience a little bit of that, man, it's, it's been special. And, and I think even in the moment you kind of sit back and you're like, I hope people, fans really appreciate how special it is. And I think those that live in the Tampa area and have grown up here and have seen the lean years. Certainly can appreciate that. Call Cleveland and Buffalo. Ask them how valuable those times are. Exactly. And what it does for a city. Sure. My goodness. We have much to get to. You started your own family tradition, I hear, right? Involving some pies, perhaps? Oh, you know about pies and giving. I did my research. We also have to talk NodPod. I know this has been a big hit. You and Chris do such a great job. And BK. So we have much more to talk about with Scott Smith right here on Fox 13 Unscripted. Folks, back in a bit. Oh, we're talking pies. I can't wait. We'll be right back. All right, we are back in the third quarter here with sports director Scott Smith doing our third period. It is the third period. Are we playing a fourth? Did you just say third quarter? It's fine. I've been there. That'll be the overtime for sure. All right, I'm short on time, so I'm going to play producer. So we'll be tight here. But I have this one question. I did a little bit of research, and some of your inner circle buddies gave me a few things. Did you really do a 100-hour fast? I've done it a couple times. Yeah, it's, uh, it's impressive. Well, I, is it, um, yeah, for me, cause I love to eat as, as kind of previously mentioned, you're talking, that's a full week. Yeah, no, I just, I've kind of gone into like the benefits of it from a health standpoint and it's just like undeniable, like what it does to the body, it helps reset. And for me, you know, it helps me kind of launch into a healthier eating lifestyle on the other side of that. Um, so I, it just kind of recalibrates So I try to do it like once a year and I'm... Trying to get ambitious enough to maybe try to bite the apple twice. Wow. Okay. Now, dumb question. Why wouldn't you just do like a couple 50-hour fasts? Because there's something that happens to the body after you kind of hit the, I believe it's like 40 to 50-hour mark. Survivor syndrome. Where the, yeah, it just goes, it does some great things to the body. Bet you didn't think you'd get that today. Great. Best, most interesting sports interview that you've had, and at the same time, worst or maybe the most awkward interaction you've had. I've had a lot of awkward interactions. This is not one of them. No, I think let's start with the best. I think the one early in my career that hit me the hardest, and figuratively, was Smokin' Joe Frazier. Oh, my gosh. I got to meet him, and he was just a legend. It was like I shook this man's hands. And they felt like I was shaking a cinder block and he had to be the nicest guy ever. And he just gave me his full attention, great answers. And I'm just this young pup reporter like he in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the time. It just stuck with me. Like, here's a guy that has accomplished so much. This guy fought Ali, you know, and here he is answering my. Probably really bad questions. That was great. I've had some awkward interactions over the years, and I do love awkwardness, so I'm fine with that. It doesn't make good TV. I've been confronted by a coach after a press conference that took issue with a question I asked, and he got really in my face. Not here. It's nothing here. But I asked a question about how the football team, it's putting up basketball numbers. He took that as a shot at me offending his basketball team because they came off a pretty low-scoring night the night before. And so you know how it is. It's like he took it a certain way. I certainly didn't mean it that way. It got a little dicey. He didn't believe, you know, all that kind of stuff. We've had those. Real quick on the Nod Pod. What are we, two and a half years in on this? Is it? Yeah, I think so. I believe my count is up to about 180-something. There you go. What do you enjoy most about that? Well, I... I love just like when Chris and I, and even BK gets in on this, where we just, just joke about the most mundane things. I mean, we give like sports takes and that kind of stuff, but I think that the, the way that we can joke off of each other and give a story life, uh, it happens each week. Like we're, we'll just kind of. just riff off one another for some silliness. One of the directives, the prime directives of this podcast was from former GM Jeff Maloney, was to be a little irreverent. And maybe we push the limits at times with that. But the freedom to be able to do that is fun. It is. And BK, of course, Brian King, your longtime producer. Shout out to BK, who does a great job. So this new tradition you guys have started, you started this all yourself, right? I willed it to me. You willed it. Okay, so tell me how this works. You call it what? Pies Giving. Pies Giving. Yes. And it's just pies. Right. And it's, yeah, it's a, it's a friend thing. It's kind of like people have friends giving, but I felt like the, the, the star of the show is really always the pie. It always is. We're told it's the turkey. It's not the turkey. Clearly it's not. Some of the sides obviously are better than the turkey itself, but the pie is the show stealer. And so like, why not get together? You and your friends, everybody bake a pie, bring a pie. I prefer if you bake it. And you do this every year? To show some effort. Yes. Amazing. And all my friends feel like their arms are twisted to be there. But at the end of the night, we have a great time. My clock is running. It's the best one you've ever had then. It's probably one of the ones that I've made. I've made a Dutch apple. I'm quite the baker. Yeah, I'm partial to my own. Everybody brings interesting different things, so I don't know if I have a favorite. I'm a fan of berry pies. Pumpkin with a little cool whip is hard to stop. Chef got Scott Smith here with us, our sports reporter. Hardly, but I'll take it. It was so fun. Appreciate it, Mark. Yeah, appreciate you. Thanks for joining us here on the stream. We'll see you on TV. Have fun.