Roger Hoover is a junior in Journalism and Electronic Media. He graduated from Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport, Tenn.
Hoover started his journalism career in August 2006, covering the Volunteer football team before he began classes at Tennessee, working in the Internet Communications office of the UT Men's and Women's Athletic Departments. He has worked as a production assistant for nearly every video on the websites utsports.com and utladyvols.com since that time. He hosted the This Week in Lady Vol Land podcast for utladyvols.com during the 2006-07 school year covering every Lady Vol sport, including the National Champion basketball team. He also served as the play-by-play announcer for live video webcasts of Tennessee Lady Volunteer Volleyball in 2006 and 2007. This included announcing games in the 2006 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament.
Hoover worked for the Vol Network in the spring of 2007, working as a feature reporter and producer for the Inside the Orange television program featuring spring UT sports. The show aired across the southeast, and was shown nationally on CSTV.
In 2007-08, Hoover's role has expanded at utsports.com and utladyvols.com. He is now the host of the Rocky Top Report, a weekly look at UT athletics on both websites. He also serves as the reporter for game reports following football and basketball games for the Vols and Lady Vols. In the fall, he served again as a play-by-play announcer for volleyball and women's soccer. This included games in the 2007 NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament.
In 2008, Hoover worked as the reporter for the Lady Vol Network on The Pat Summitt Show, the weekly television program for the Lady Vol basketball team and legendary head coach, Pat Summitt. He is the public address announcer for Tennessee Baseball this spring at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
In the summer of 2008, Hoover was the Director of Broadcasting for the Kingsport Mets as the first full-time broadcaster in K-Mets history. The Mets are the rookie, Appalachaian League affiliate of the New York Mets. The Mets finished the season with a winning record, and had listeners across the world, including Australia, China, South Africa, and Brazil.
In 2008, Hoover resumed his role as the internet video reporter for Tennessee athletics, and filled in on three occasions for UT historian Haywood Harris on Inside the Coach's Office, a weekly interview with then-head coach Phillip Fulmer. Hoover covered the final days of the Fulmer era, and the beginning of the Lane Kiffin era for utsports.com.
For the 2009 baseball season, Hoover joins the Class AA Tennessee Smokies for his second season in professional baseball broadcasting. Hoover serves as a broadcast assistant on the Smokies Radio Network, which can be heard on The Sports Animal WNML 99.1 FM, WNML 990 AM in Knoxville, and WNRX 99.3 in Jefferson City.
Hoover is a devout Chicago Cubs fan, in addition to being a student of the game. Hoover wants to go into baseball play-by-play announcing as a career, with the goal of making it to the Major Leagues.
He credits his mother and father for his love of baseball, due to their yearly commitment of taking him to Wrigley Field in Chicago, where they have witnessed many "beautiful days for a ballgame."
