Today we’d like to introduce you to Lee Smith.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in Powell, just outside Knoxville. Football took me a long way from home — I was
drafted by the Patriots in the fifth round in 2011 and spent eleven years in the league between
Buffalo, Oakland, back to Buffalo, and finishing in Atlanta. I played 149 games as a tight end.
Early in my career I got away with not training or recovering the right way. I leaned on genetics,
work ethic, and a will to dominate — and it worked, until it didn’t. It wasn’t until the back end
of my career that I bought into science-based training, physical therapy, and real recovery. That
shift let me play the best football of my life after thirty — something very few guys at my
position get to say. It also made it obvious what I needed to bring home.
The kids in East Tennessee are grinding just as hard as I did, but most of them don’t have any of
that support. The youth sports world is full of one-size-fits-all programs that take a parent’s
money without asking the real questions: Where is this athlete in their development? What
does their body, their schedule, their faith life actually require for success on and off the field?
That gap is why Triple F exists. The name stands for Faith, Family, and Fitness — in that order,
on purpose. Faith first, because our character has to reflect a heart for the Lord and for the
people around us. Family second, because no athlete grows in isolation — parents, siblings, and
coaches are part of the development. Fitness third, because the body is the work we do
together, not the thing we worship.
We actually opened as Faith, Family, Football. In our third year we made the switch to Fitness —
and that wasn’t a rebrand, it was a maturation of the mission. Football was the gift God gave me
to create this place, but we had to pivot from what got us here to what was going to take us
further. We built a place for full-family transformation. Fitness opened the door to adult
members, to parents who hadn’t trained in twenty years, to the seven-year-old who’d never
picked up a ball, and to volleyball families. Same mission, bigger door.
Today, Triple F is a 12,000 sq ft facility off Oak Ridge Highway built the way an NFL training
complex is built — individualized assessments, on-site physical therapy, and coaches who care
as much about who an athlete becomes as how fast they run. We’re giving Knoxville the chance
to Train Like a Pro.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Honestly, no — and I wouldn’t want it to have been.
Building a 12,000 sq ft facility from the ground up was a leap of faith. We were betting that
families in Knoxville would value long-term athletic development over the quick-fix model that
dominates youth sports — and that bet didn’t pay off overnight. We had to educate parents on
the difference between a workout and a development plan.
A big pivot was the Football-to-Fitness shift in year three. Football was what I knew, what my
network was, what people expected from me. Letting go of that label — and trusting that
“Fitness” would actually expand the mission rather than dilute it — took prayer and conviction.
It meant turning down the easier story to tell the truer one. Looking back, it’s the best decision
we’ve made as a business.
Staffing has been another mountain. The kind of coaches we want — people who can deliver
pro-level instruction and lead from a place of character and faith — aren’t easy to find
anywhere, let alone in one zip code. We’ve built our team slowly and carefully, and we’d rather
leave a role open than fill it wrong.
What carried us through every one of those moments was faith — and watching what was
happening with the athletes already in our building. Once you see a kid transform over the
course of a year, you don’t quit.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Triple F is Knoxville’s home for long-term athletic development — for the whole family. We’re
not a football academy and we’re not a sport-specific facility. We don’t run baseball drills or
volleyball drills or basketball drills in our sessions. We train athletes, full stop. The qualities that
make someone fast, strong, durable, explosive, and resilient are universal — and those are the
qualities we develop here, no matter what sport an athlete plays.
We organize our programming around two age-based pathways. Our Future Pro Program serves
athletes ages 7 to 11 — building the foundational movement, coordination, and confidence that
long-term development is built on. Our Long-Term Athletic Development Program picks up at
ages 12 to 18, layering in performance work, individualized assessment, and the systems that
prepare an athlete to play at the highest level they’re capable of. Beyond youth, we serve
adults, college and pro athletes, our Triple F Volleyball Club, and a 10-week NFL Pre-Draft
program. On-site physical therapy keeps the whole system working together.
What sets us apart is the structure. Every athlete starts with our proprietary assessment that
tells us exactly where they are. The results of that assessment dictate the athlete’s program
moving forward. We organize the work around five pillars: Character, Assessment, Training,
Experience, and Recovery. Character comes first because faith is at the core of who we are.
Assessment removes guesswork. Training applies the work with the right tools, drills, and
technology. Experience is the joy — we want kids to actually love what they’re doing here. And
Recovery — sleep, nutrition, sports medicine — is the part most programs skip, and it’s the part
that separates good athletes from great ones.
The proof shows up on the field. We’ve been blessed to train first-round NFL Draft picks,
Division I college athletes, and All-State high school athletes. But I’m equally proud of the
seventh-grader who walks in shy and a year later carries herself like she belongs. That’s the real
product.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
A lot of people.
My wife Alisha first — she lived the NFL life with me and then said yes to building this with me,
which is a different kind of courage. Our kids Brody, Amanda, Brock, and Addison are the daily
reminder of who we’re really doing this for. The “Family” in Triple F isn’t a branding choice; it’s
how we actually live.
The team that runs this place every day deserves enormous credit. Kevin O’Shea, our COO,
holds the operation together. Rich Burnett, our Director of Athletic Development, is one of the
sharpest combine and performance minds in the country — our athletes are lucky to learn from
him.
Our community at Shoreline Church — and its pastor, Jason Hayes — has been a steady source
of grounding and prayer through every season of this business.
I also owe a debt to the NFL itself — to every strength coach, trainer, and teammate who
modeled what excellence looks like. I’m trying to pass that forward.
And finally, the families who trusted us in year one, before we had proof of concept or a
polished business. They took a chance on a vision, and they’re a big part of why that vision is
now real.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://triplefsports.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/triplefknoxville/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TripleFKnoxville
- Twitter: https://x.com/triplefknox?lang=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@triplefknoxville2602
