Sideline interviews typically go one of two ways: a coach using a lot of words to say very little or a coach using few words to say very little.
Or when the University of Colorado’s head football coach Deion Sanders — “Coach Prime” — is involved, a reporter occasionally hears the unexpected “… and your outfit is killing the game!” That’s what FOX Sports’ Alexa Landestoy ’18 recently heard during her game report.
“Thank you,” the TCU Bob Schieffer College of Communication graduate nimbly replied before adding: “I feel like I could be loud on the Colorado sideline.”
Meet Landestoy, the sideline reporter on one of FOX Sports’ college football broadcast teams with Robert Griffin III and Jason Benetti, a proud TCU Horned Frog, and well on her way to being a household name in sports journalism. The question she gets most often, aside from what she was wearing on Week 2 in Boulder to get kudos from a fashionista like Coach Prime, is “How do I do what you are doing?”
“I never felt too big for any role,” Landestoy said, “and I said yes.”
“Say yes” is just one of the “rules” that helped guide Landestoy to the sidelines for some of the biggest college football games this season. Here are the others her trajectory models for aspiring journalists.
1. Start now.
Landestoy always wanted to work in sports — first as a soccer player, then in sports medicine (after tearing both ACLs), before finally landing on sports broadcasting.
Nor was this just a line to be uttered when asked her major. This spurred action. Landestoy went from reporting on her uncle Jim Benkert’s high school football games in California to flying to football camps and interviewing players.
Her dad was her first cameraman; her parents, her first investors.
“What I say now is, ‘Get the reps, create a reel now,’” Landestoy said. “I was lucky I was still under my parents’ protection, and they were willing to help me follow my dreams, get to these places and get experience.”
2. Leave your comfort zone.
When deciding on a college, Landestoy had a few nonnegotiables — big-time athletics, thriving Greek life and a sports broadcasting program.
“I fell in love with TCU while touring,” Landestoy said, “and it was the best decision.”
Landestoy ended up being a Zeta Tau Alpha and majoring in film, television and digital media in Schieffer College, with a lot of her best memories happening on football Saturdays at Amon G. Carter Stadium — as a fan and an aspiring reporter.
“The most nervous I got for anything was in-stadium hosting, going live with all of my friends watching.” Landestoy admitted. “I have so many great memories there, I met my husband at TCU …”
Hold that story. She is not quite there yet.
3. Find a sponsor.
Suggesting a young journalist, or really any young professional, find a mentor is not groundbreaking. What Landestoy learned is the value of having a sponsor, and not in the normal definition. A sponsor speaks your name in rooms you are not in, suggests you for roles, includes you in important projects.
Former Horned Frogs football coach Gary Patterson was that person for Landestoy at TCU.
“Coach Patterson had seen some of my work in high school so, when I came to TCU, he brought me in like a football recruit,” Landestoy said. “Coach Patterson took this girl from SoCal, always introduced me, always included me, even though this was at the height of everything.”
4. Nobody is ready. So everybody is.
FOX Sports Southwest was looking for an intern. Landestoy, a sophomore, wanted to apply but was warned that it usually went to someone with more experience. She applied anyway.
“I remember thinking: ‘No, this is what I want to do. Why not just see what happens,’” Landestoy said. “So I went for it. … It was the turning point of my career and my life.”
She landed the fall internship, which led to a summer covering the Dallas Wings in the WNBA and was a little lonely.
“I had everything I ever wanted, and I’m sitting in my apartment at the Grand Marc, all of my friends in Europe, and thinking the only other people here are the baseball team,” Landestoy said. “So I reached out and said: Let me know if you guys are doing anything.”
That question introduced her to Michael Landestoy ’18, the man who would become her husband. He played baseball and, it turns out, they were doing something. They were in the midst of one of the best seasons in TCU Baseball history.
“He ended up inviting me to the Super Regional,” Landestoy said, where she had a front-row seat to them punching their ticket to the College World Series in Omaha.
5. Say yes.
Alexa Landestoy has had slightly different versions of the same conversation so many times, with the same answer. Yes.
Do you want to cover high school football? Yes. WNBA? Yes.
Report on TCU Football? Yes. Host in-stadium content at TCU football games? Yes.
Move to D.C. for NBC? Host a nightly sports talk show? Blog? Yes, yes and yes.
Host pre- and post-game shows for the Washington Capitals? Yes.
Be a sideline reporter for FOX Sports? Yes.
Each yes helped her get to the next yes.
“I think it’s ‘Say yes and don’t wait,’” Landestoy said. “If nobody is asking, create a podcast, a YouTube channel. I didn’t want to feel like I needed to have the job to get the experience.”
6. Family is everything.
Alexa and Michael Landestoy married in August 2021 and welcomed baby Isabella Rae not quite five months ago.
Yes, not too long before taking on this new job at FOX.
“I always said I wanted to do it all,” Landestoy said with a chuckle. “It’s been the best adventure. And I’m so fortunate to have a great support system.”
Her parents, Tim and Kathy Shaw, have gone from her first cameramen to her first babysitters. They still live in California but have been fixtures in D.C. Michael, who graduated with an economics degree from TCU’s AddRan College of Liberal Arts, is a pro scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates and understands the business. A true team.
7. Becoming an overnight success takes a while.
Landestoy posted, “When your outfit is Coach Prime approved @cfbonfox” to Instagram after the game. The moment had already gone viral, and football fans not previously familiar with her work now were.
Everybody wanted to know: Where did she come from?
From Texas Christian University, one yes at a time.