GREAT FALLS -
You'd probably think it’s not often that people with direct Great Falls ties appear on ESPN, but you’d be wrong.
Every weekday from 5-8 a.m. you can find Great Falls High School graduate Jaymee Sire anchoring the morning edition of SportsCenter.
"It’s kind of surreal now to say that I work at ESPN, that I do SportsCenter five days a week," said Sire. "It’s kind of still a little bit crazy to me."
She began her career nearly 14 years ago to the day at KRTV and KXLH. Things were more than a bit different then, and yet now they’re also similar.
"I got to do it [anchor] in my hometown where my mom got to watch me on TV and my dad got to watch me on TV. I think that was really neat for them. Now it’s come full circle because they get to watch me on TV again because now we’re on nationally."
Her journey to ESPN came via a four-year stop in San Diego and then a five-year stop in San Francisco.
You may think that an offer to join the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" would be a no-brainer. However, with her roots squarely planted in California, it wasn’t -- at least at first.
"We heard back within a couple weeks that they were making an offer for an anchor position. I still didn’t know if I was going to take it at that time. I was still really grappling with the decision. In the end once I talked to a lot of people I respected in the business, everybody was like, 'Wait you’re crazy. Why are you even considering this you’re going.' So I went and I don’t regret it one bit. I haven’t regretted it for one minute."
After two and a half years of working on multiple platforms for the network, Sire was moved in February 2016 to work full-time as an anchor on ESPN’s morning SportsCenter.
"It’s one of my favorite jobs, if not the most favorite job I’ve ever had, but it’s also the most challenging job I’ve ever had. It pushes you every single day, especially when we’re reporting on things that happened while you were sleeping."
The former Bison has certainly come a long way since her days in Great Falls, but she says those experiences are irreplaceable.
"Starting here, I feel like I learned so much and I value every aspect of the business so much more. With the way the business is now, you don’t always have to start in these smaller markets, but I am so glad I did. I wouldn’t trade that for anything."
You can keep up with Jamyee on Twitter, where she has nearly 45,000 followers.
The self-described foodie also operates a food blog called E Is For Eat.
