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Thomas Lee has done radio color commentary for a pair of Plano football games this season. A fun job for a Plano alum, no doubt, but is there a temptation to cheer?

Not really, said Lee, the founder and president of Champion Sports Radio. He learned to separate his emotions from his job years ago, when he was a Texas student broadcasting Longhorns volleyball and softball games.

JOHN F. RHODES/DMN

Thomas Lee (left) and Brad Denton broadcast games over the Champion Sports Radio Network. They do a Plano district game of the week as well as other area games.

And he was a pretty big UT fan.

"I was in the marching band at UT," he said, "and really the whole purpose was so I could go to all the away football games for free."

Lee has a talent for music, which started back at Plano, where he was a drum major. He then played trombone in the Texas marching band and earned some paying gigs with funk and jazz bands around Austin.

But a love for sports is what got Lee, 29, into broadcasting. He worked for Clear Channel Austin for 3 ½ years before moving back to North Texas to start his own company, TDLee Productions, in the summer of 2005. The first team he got to sign on for radio broadcasts was Hebron, and it was great timing for Lee.

Hebron won the 2005 Class 4A Division II state football title, and two months later, the boys and girls basketball teams won district titles.

"That first year at Hebron was so special," Lee said. "I don't think we saw them lose a game for most of the season. That's why I named it Champion Sports Radio."

With a new name, the company expanded its broadcasts. Champion broadcasts a Plano school district football game of the week, as well as events for Coppell, Duncanville, Hebron, Flower Mound, Hurst L.D. Bell, Irving MacArthur and Lewisville. It broadcasts on AM 700 and FM 104.9.

Sports broadcasting is what Lee has always wanted to do, from the time he was a boy watching football games with his stepdad, John Douglas. Lee said he learned to watch football "with a more engaged perspective" from Douglas, a linebacker for the New York Giants from 1970 to 1973.

Now Lee tries to bring that to listeners, even if some are cheering against Plano.

"Every day so many people get up and don't want to go to work," he said. "But for me, getting to work with the kids, fans and coaches and getting to go out and call a game is a real treat."

mwixon@dallasnews.com

YEARBOOK MOMENT: During this week five years ago, Highland Park's girls cross country team finished fourth – and then first – at the 4A state meet. The original results had HP fourth because one of its runners, sophomore Kelly Parma, was listed as competing for another team. After the mistake was corrected, Highland Park celebrated its fifth cross country title in six years.

END OF THE STREAKS: All streaks must end sometime, and for four impressive ones, that time was last week. In football, three district winning streaks – 34 games for Kimball, 33 for Carter and 26 for Hebron – bit the dust. And in tennis, New Braunfels won the 4A state title by ending Highland Park's 114-match win streak. The Highland Park girls swim team and the Lancaster girls track team (seven straight 4A titles each) hope this is not a trend.

CHEST-THUMPING AT MARCUS: It's a happy time for the Flower Mound Marcus football team, which is one failed 2-point conversion from being 9-0. That lone loss to Flower Mound was pretty much washed away Friday when Marcus clinched a playoff spot with a 21-10 win over Hebron. Here's an idea of the energy level right now at Marcus: After Friday's win, coach Bryan Erwin was doing flying chest bumps with several players.