ALUMNI NEWS add in a long Midwest winter and being required to sit out his first season of basketball due to transfer regulations, Edwards’ first year in Forest City brought along some challenges for the six-foot-one junior guard.
Edwards and the squad at Buffalo Wild Wings, 2009
Due to his private personality, very few had the opportunity to get to know Edwards well during this time. However, he managed to bond closely with a core group of his teammates who encouraged and challenged each other, and who took weekly “fancy dinner” trips together to the local Cancun Mexican restaurant. Between team bonding get-togethers, evenings filled with video games and these regular group outings, the young men formed what Edwards considers to this day to be, “a brotherhood.” “The people, and the oneness of the community really stood out to me about Waldorf from the beginning,” Edwards reminisced. “I felt safe. The people who went to [Waldorf] helped me get through.” Even through adversity, his character could not go unnoticed by the rest of campus. At the end of his junior year, Edwards was recognized as the recipient of The Sam Koehnk Courage Award scholarship. This scholarship had been established a decade prior by the family and friends of Sam Koehnk ’99. Sam was a former Warrior basketball player who died of cancer during his time at Waldorf. The annual award goes to a returning men’s basketball player who demonstrates courage, leadership and commitment to excellence on and off the court–all of which described Edwards during his Waldorf years. The young basketball player was so moved by this honor that he approached the Koehnk family for permission to wear Sam’s jersey number the following season. Proudly donning the number 23 on the court for his senior year, Edwards paid tribute to Sam’s honor in his final Waldorf days. Unfortunately, however, when he thought his senior year was taking a turn for the better, Edwards picked up the phone only to receive a dreaded call that no one can ever truly be prepared for: his beloved greatgrandmother, the woman who had taken
him in and raised him, had passed away. It was just a week before Waldorf’s end-ofsemester final exams, and his whole life was suddenly turned upside down.
And while the end of his basketball career came within the following year, some of his most influential life endeavors were only just beginning.
Flying home to California to prep for the funeral brought a mix of emotions, and being surrounded by family made it difficult to want to return to Forest City for his final semester.
In an effort to build upon his Waldorf education degree, Edwards returned to school to pursue his teacher’s certificate. At the time, he made the decision to stay in the teaching field because he didn’t want to start his education over from scratch. In hindsight, however, there’s no doubt that being a teacher came naturally and gracefully to the Waldorf graduate.
“I thought about dropping out at the time,” reflected the Waldorf alumnus. “I only continued for her; she always wanted me to get a college degree.” When spring semester returned to Waldorf, so did the to-be graduate. With a heavier heart and a lingering fractured foot from the semester prior, Edwards persevered on–but not without support. During his years at Waldorf, Edwards attended First Baptist Church of Forest City, and over time, he developed a friendship with Senior Pastor Eric Weaver ’94. Whether it was life conversations over milkshakes at Hardee’s or a quick chat after the Sunday morning service, he recalls that Weaver always made himself available. Edwards credits that relationship with being instrumental in helping to restore his personal faith in Christ during these trying times. “Weaver was also a huge supporter of my basketball career at the time, and I am very thankful for the time I spent with him,” Edwards evoked. Graduation day on April 30, 2011, brought Edwards to the end of a semester of painfully playing basketball on a broken foot, grieving the loss of his grandmother and figuring out what his next step into “real life” was going to bring. It marked the end of a semester that he didn’t want to ever relive. Upon receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in Foundations of Education, Edwards didn’t waste any time getting back to California. Three duffel bags and a plethora of memories were all he took home from his time at Waldorf. However, his quick return to L.A. didn’t last long. The recent graduate apparently hadn’t had enough of the frigid winters, and in August 2011, he packed up his things and made the journey even further north to pursue his basketball career in Canada. After working out for the National Basketball League Combine of Canada, Edwards found his place on a Toronto team playing professional basketball. It was an opportunity that few receive, and his love of basketball only grew during his time in Canada.
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The people, and the oneness of the community really stood out to me about Waldorf from the beginning.
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Edwards’ Monday through Friday work life finds him teaching first through third graders full-time at Mission Montessori Academy in Scottsdale, Ariz. Mission’s goal is to pursue academic excellence, global and social responsibility and love and empathy for all in a safe, nurturing and peaceful environment, and after being recognized as the Charter School of the Year in 2016, it’s obvious that they live up to this mission. “The staff is great, the owner is great, but the children are even better,” the proud teacher remarked. “I love the reward of watching a student learn, of teaching them how to read...I like to bring a lot of fun into the classroom.” But his work doesn’t stop when the school bell rings. A couple of years ago, a friend of Edward’s who hosts the NBA podcast “The Jump” invited him to participate on one of the episodes. Edwards’ talent was undeniable, and he was brought back to star as a regular on the show, ultimately officially joining the team. However, a five-minute conversation with Edwards is all that’s needed to get an understanding of the unquestionable entrepreneurial brain he was gifted with. He wasn’t in this podcasting role long before he and six other colleagues banded together to further their reach and co-found a podcastnetwork titled “Count the Dings.” But even amidst all of the success he con-... EDWARDS continued pg. 24
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FALL 2019 // WALDORF MAGAZINE
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