Et cetera : Where are they now? How being a sports anchor is Brett Edwards\' second choice

Brett Edwards: Former Viking and 2001 VS grad is now sports anchor at KLKN-TV in Lincoln, Neb.

Brett Edwards has sat face-to-face with NBA legend Bill Walton.

He gets paid to travel all over the country, covering his favorite college football team.

He has seen some of the most famous football venues in the country.

Yet, he says, there is one job he would rather do than the one he is doing now.

Edwards, the son of Jeff and Sue Edwards of Vinton, graduated from Vinton-Shellsburg in 2001. He is currently the sports directors at KLKN-TV in Lincoln, Neb.

He covers Friday night high school then accompanies the Nebraska football team wherever it plays.

"I have already crossed off my list several stadiums that I always wanted to visit," he said. "I have been to Texas A & M, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State."

He has also traveled to Nebraska's bowl games, including the 2010 Holiday Bowl, where Walton served as Honorary Chairman and Parade Grand Marshal.

Unlike Iowa, which has the U of I, ISU, UNI and Drake, Nebraska college football fans have just one team they all support.

"They definitely bleed red," says Edwards of his audience of Nebraska Cornhusker fans.

Lincoln, the Nebraska State Capital, has 250,000 residents, second only to Omaha. Memorial Stadium, where the Huskers play, is the third-largest in the country, he says.

And yet, as much as he loves his job, there is one thing he would rather do: Announce football games.

"I like where I am at, but I have always had a passion to announce games," says Edwards, adding that if a job opportunity like that came up, he would seriously consider it.

As a youngster, he would pretend to announce games, the way he saw and heard his favorite TV announcers do it.

"My all-time favorite is Keith Jackson of ABC (who retired in 2006)," he says. Other favorites include Bob Costas, Brett Musburger and Jim Nantz.

Edwards says he views the best kind of broadcasting as a conversation.

"I try to relate to the viewer, to the person watching. I try to be relaxed, like we are sitting in the living room or on the deck, talking about sports."

And football, he says, is his favorite sport.

At V-S, Edwards set passing records that still stand. At the 2010 Hall of Fame Induction the audience heard about his high school career. He was a member of 2000 football team that won the Vikings’ 1st District Championship and advanced to the state play-offs for the first time in school history. He still holds the records for most passing yards set that season. He was also a 7-time track & field state qualifier in the high jump, 4x200, 4x400 and Medley Relay, placing 2nd in the high jump in 2000. He was also a member of the 1998 Class 3A state championship baseball team.

"We played some pretty good football, basketball and baseball," he said. "We had a great group of athletes."

Edwards graduated from Wayne State College in Nebraska, where he played quarterback. After a year of coaching, he realized that was not the job for him. He attended a broadcasting school in Denver, Colo., and landed his first TV job in North Platte, Neb. He then went to a station in Rock Island, which is owned by the same company that owns KLKN. When the sports anchor job there opened up, he accepted it.

Saying he loves the atmosphere of college football, Edwards has spoken with many legends of the game, including Tom Osborne, as well as many college and NFL players and coaches.

Still single, Edwards says he loves his job, his city, which he calls a "farming community with very friendly people," and his new hobby: Golf.

"I am not very good at it, but now, anytime that it is nice, I will go to the course."

And at times, he returns to see his family, including his sister, Kellie Edwards Geater (a member of the V-S 1996 girls state basketball team), and old friends and teammates in Vinton.

"I think it's neat to go back to your roots, no matter where you are," he said.