Oct. 7, 2026
Contact: Cary Littlejohn, carylittlejohn@missouri.edu
Photos courtesy of Tom Martin and Aly Trost Martin
Tom Martin came to the University of Missouri to become a sports journalist. Aly Trost Martin graduated from Mizzou to build a career in advertising.
Today, she’s the sports broadcaster. He runs the creative agency.
It wasn’t the career path either expected when they first arrived at on campus, but the twists and turns of their careers are a testament to the versatility of a Missouri School of Journalism education powered by the Missouri Method.
At Mizzou, before they were married, Tom Martin, BJ ’13, and Aly Trost Martin, BJ ’17, learned how to report, write, produce, think creatively and tell a good story. And their educations gave them the skills to recognize opportunities, pivot when necessary and thrive.
Now Trost Martin is a leading voice for the National Women’s Soccer League as a host, commentator, play-by-play announcer and sideline reporter for multiples networks covering leagues across the international soccer landscape. Martin serves as producer, editor and creative consultant of Twin Prop Creative, the video production agency he founded in 2025 that’s already landed clients such as Major League Soccer, the Premier League and the PGA of America.
Both of their stories are what happens when graduates leave Mizzou prepared not for a specific job but for wherever their talents take them. Now living in New York City, they both agree that Mizzou was one of the best decisions they ever made.
Betting on themselves
Mizzou brings ambitious students together, creating an environment where they push one another to be their best.
“When you go to the journalism school, everyone is there to chase a dream, too,” Martin said. “These people will push you, and you want to be pushed because you want to get better. They’ll end up being lifelong friends, and those friendships will end up paying off in unexpected ways.”
He originally planned to become a print journalist but switched to broadcast by sophomore year.
Shortly after, he won an Emmy in the category of Sports - News Single Story, beating out professional entities in St. Louis and Kansas City.
After graduation, Martin worked in broadcast in Lafayette, Louisiana; Buffalo, New York; and Kansas City. His Mizzou connections led him to an early role with startup Let It Fly Media, co-founded by Andrew Carter, BJ ’13. After years of success, Martin decided to build something of his own, and Twin Prop Creative was born.
“I don’t think I could do what I’m doing today if I hadn’t gone to Mizzou,” he said. “Even though I’m not in a newsroom anymore, I lean on the skills I learned there every single day.”
Trost Martin’s path was similarly unconventional.
Though she was always interested in sports journalism, she chose to study strategic communication.
“When I looked at the entire catalog of offerings, it felt like the program that was going to give me a very well-rounded journalism school experience where I could collect many different skill sets and get exposed to different topics,” Trost Martin said.
The summer before her senior year, internships in St. Louis left her questioning that decision. But Mizzou opened a door she hadn’t expected. She was approached to cover women’s basketball for SB Nation, which gave her experience and a foot in the door of the sports journalism world that she would use when she graduated and took a copywriting job at a Kansas City agency.
In her free time, she continued to write for SB Nation, covering Sporting Kansas City. She created her own opportunities by contacting the team’s communications staff and asking to interview the coach after games. With a camera and microphone she’d bought for herself, she was soon “one of the de facto voices of Sporting KC,” Martin said.
She later joined Arrowhead Pride, SB Nation’s Chiefs blog, for her first paying gig in sports. She eventually left advertising for Sports Radio 810, taking a role that offered less pay but a coveted opportunity to pursue her dream covering sports.
“It was one of the best decisions I ever made,” she said. “What got me in the door were the strategic communications skills I honed at Mizzou; I was thought of first as a marketing hire. But over time, 810 gave me a chance to get reps on-air. That's really where it all started falling into place.”
The gamble paid off. By 2021, Trost Martin had joined Sporting KC as a sideline reporter, beginning a rise that would take her to play-by-play and commentary roles and eventually national work with CBS Sports and Amazon Prime Video.
Making your own luck starts at Mizzou
The Martins agree the first step for students who want to follow their lead is to attend Mizzou.
“I read a quote recently that said, ‘The best thing you can do in life is increase your surface area for luck,’ and, for me, Mizzou was the thing that did that,” Trost Martin said.
Columbia’s central location in the state allows students to increase that surface area, from opportunities to cover Mizzou athletics and the SEC to numerous professional teams in Kansas City and St. Louis.
“I would tell anybody: Don’t just follow the curriculum,” she said. “The students who are always setting themselves apart are the ones who find opportunities outside of just what’s offered to them at school.”
For Martin, the most valuable and versatile skill Mizzou gave him is storytelling.“Mizzou is one of the foundational pillars of communication education in this country, journalism specifically,” he said. “It’s a skill that’s worth its weight in gold. If you want to be a great storyteller and communicator, why would you go anywhere else but Mizzou?”
