“What’s up Eastern, I’m Ted Drinkwater and we’ve got a lot going on in Eastern sports,” echoes the familiar voice through the school every morning. Drinkwater is a sports anchor on ETV News and somewhat of an Eastern phenomenon, often seen high-fiving underclassmen as he walks through the hallways.

  Drinkwater says he never expected for everything to blow up the way it did. “There’s a lot of things that come with it, but most of of all, you just gotta be able to be a role model to people.”

 Usually in some sort of school apparel and with a smile on his face, he informs students and staff about the latest sports news.  

  “I think I get most of my charisma from my dad, but I can be shy sometimes when I’m put outside of my comfort zone,” Drinkwater said. His dad encourages him to find new ways to make the program interesting by saying new catchphrases.

  Off camera, he loves to play basketball, go to church with family, and hang out with his friends, who he says see his role on ETV as a bit of a joke. “I still see myself as a role model figure, though,” he admits proudly.

  As a junior, Ted will be heading off to college in 2020, leaving behind his supportive three sisters- Melanie, Ellie, and Talia- and parents.

He plans to go to a four-year college and major in communications or business. These plans inspired him to join ETV.

  “I want to go down the communication route, so I thought getting involved with ETV News would be a good thing to get on my transcript and just get experience under my belt,” he said.

  Ted explains the process of making an episode of ETV to those who don’t get the privilege of being in the studio.

  “We walk into the studio and you gotta have your ID on,” he emphasizes. “We mic up and get mic-checked and just read off the teleprompter. If I have something I wanna report, I can just email Mr. Holmes what I wanna say and go from there.”

  The people on the show all get along and have a good time filming. Ted especially credits the students behind the camera for all their hard work making sure the news is ready to go day in and day out.

  Though he sees himself as a sports anchor or a host of a sports talk show in the future, Ted is sticking to the school news for now.

  “I just wanna spread positive energy,” says Ted, “and I want everybody to know that being nice to everyone takes you somewhere.”