With the NCAA adopting a new 5-in-5 eligibility model over the summer, East Tennessee senior goalkeeper Sam McGee has a fifth year of eligibility available. Instead, McGee plans to hang up the gloves at season’s end and transition to coaching.
He’ll miss being an active part of the game. He won’t miss the pain that comes with it. McGee, a Johnson City native and product of University High, has a laundry list of injuries.
A broken wrist. A broken foot. A chip in his femur. One of his knees has lost all its cartilage. He also has a meniscus issue.
“As a goal keeper, you’re hitting the ground a hundred times a day,” McGee said. “You’re kind of used to living in a bit of pain. If something goes wrong, it’s not too out of the ordinary.”
McGee can’t even specify when the broken bones happened. “I didn’t know they were broken until I went to the doctor and got an X-ray.”
Those injuries, and ETSU having a succession of quality keepers, limited the time McGee saw on the field in games. He actually made his collegiate debut Sept. 22 against Presbyterian, playing the first half. McGee then got to play the entire match at Winthrop on Oct. 13, and made three saves while recording the clean sheet. McGee knew going in the plan was for him to man the goal for the duration.
“They told me. They said, the game’s yours,” McGee said. “I was happy I got to play, but I wasn’t too nervous or anything. My brother lives in Charlotte, he came up to watch. That was really nice, for him to see me play.”
McGee’s clean sheet sparked quite the reaction from the team as well. After the match, someone changed the team group chat icon to McGee’s rating against Winthrop on Sofascore, which uses an algorithm to rate keepers on a 10-point scale.
“I’m from around here so all the boys know what it means for me to play,” he said. “Even though I haven’t been able to contribute in games, I am a presence behind the scenes, locker room situations. The boys were buzzing.”
McGee already holds his degree in Kinesiology and is wrapping up a Master’s in Sport Science and Coach Education. That fits well with his goal to become a coach. McGee already has dabbled in the profession; he’s coached a youth club team for FC Alliance and, out of season, worked with the keepers for the ETSU women’s soccer side.
“I’ve known since I’ve been in high school that this is a path for me,” he said.
The 2026 campaign, and McGee’s playing career, are winding down. ETSU plays its final regular-season match this Saturday at UNC Greensboro, then looks ahead to the Southern Conference tournament, which begins this coming Tuesday with first-round matches at campus sites. The winner of the ETSU-UNCG match, if there is a winner, would secure the No. 2 seed and a bye into the semifinals of the conference tournament. Currently, the Bucs and Spartans are tied for second.
“It’s quite bittersweet,” McGee said. “I have friends that obviously graduated and you look forward to having more free time and being able to move on in your life and not just be a college athlete, but it’s also something that has been a big part of you. Obviously you don’t really want it to end but you also look forward to what comes next in your career.”
Here’s a roundup of what other local athletes are doing at the professional and Division I collegiate levels …
Evan Carter finds out on Sunday if he’s going to be a Gold Glove winner. The Elizabethton native is one of three finalists for the American League Gold Glove in center field. Carter finished the 2026 season with an outs above average (OAA) value of 11. That ranked fifth in all of Major League Baseball. Carter also posted a +9 fielding runs value (FRV) and +6 defensive runs saved (DRS).
Taken in the second round of the 2020 MLB Draft by the Rangers with the 50th overall pick out of Elizabethton High School, Carter made his big league debut during the 2023 season, and was part of the Rangers’ victorious run in the World Series. As good as Carter is in the field, he struggled throughout the 2026 season at the plate, hitting .194 with a .602 OPS, although he did steal 17 bases, his highest total in the majors.
The Gold Glove winners will be announced Sunday on ESPN at 8:30 during a special edition of “Baseball Tonight.”
Pro Basketball
Basquet Girona dropped its first group game in the FIBA Europe Cup, 81-79 to Szolnoki Olaj on Wednesday, and Gate City native Mac McClung was not in action. He sat out the game for load management concerns. In the three Europe Cup games in which he has appeared, McClung leads Girona in scoring (20.7 points per game) and efficiency (19.7). Girona is 3-2 and, with a point differential of minus 22, 10th in the 18-team Liga ACB, after beating Joventut 101-87 on Sunday.
Greeneville native Ja’Kobi Gillespie continues to see occasional spot minutes, usually at the end of games, for the San Antonio Spurs. Gillespie sank a 3-pointer during a three-minute appearance in Saturday’s 122-106 win over Dallas.
Pro Football
The New York Jets officially signed LB Jaden Keller (Bristol/Tennessee High/Virginia Tech) to the active 53-man roster on Saturday. Keller had been on the practice squad, and was elevated to the game roster by the Jets the maximum number of three times. Keller had 10 tackles and a pass breakup in the preseason. He’s seen the field on special teams so far for the Jets, and has made one tackle
College Basketball
Greeneville product Trey Thompson barely saw the floor in the Hawkeyes’ 88-64 exhibition win against Illinois Springfield. Thompson did not appear until less than four minutes remained in the game, and he did not score or take a shot.
“The rotation could change,” Iowa coach Ben McCollum said after the game when asked about Thompson’s limited minutes. “It’s not one of those things that’s locked in, set in stone. Outside of going into why some people do go in and why some people don’t, I think it’s just more of an internal thing as to who we think that has done it in practice more often than most, consistently from a winning perspective. We have so many different stats and tools and objective measures. Then, there’s just subjective measures, right? And so then, you’ve also got to think, OK, well, who are some people going to beat out? Like, who are they going to play over? And so, there’s a lot that goes into it. But it’s a long season.”
Cross Country
Jenna Hutchins and the BYU cross country team are preparing for the Big 12 championship meet this weekend at Oklahoma State. Hutchins finished in the top 30 in her most recent race, the Indiana Pre-Nationals. The Big 12 women’s race begins at 11 a.m. Eastern time on Saturday, and ESPN+ will carry the event.