In Hans Waters’ Mahomet home is a display case containing a pretty impressive curio: a gleaming gold Emmy statuette, placed next to his son’s Pinewood Derby trophy.

It was presented by mail rather than at a red-carpet ceremony, but it was no less exciting.

“It comes in a box this big,” he said, holding his hands a few feet apart, “and it’s got black velvet on the inside. You know you’re really getting something.”

Waters, a freelance video editor specializing in sports broadcasts, has won two Emmy awards. He travels all over the country, working mostly with crews from CBS and NBC. He’s been behind the scenes at the Super Bowl, the Olympics, the Final Four and many other high-profile sporting events. Waters won his most recent Emmy in 2011, which he in turn presented to his parents, Mahomet residents Larry and Eileen Waters, whom he credits with much of his success.

Larry Waters worked as a production manager at Champaign television stations WICD and WCIA for many years, and inspired Hans’ love of video production. Hans also credits his parents for teaching him to work hard and guiding him and his sister, Heidi, to success in their fields.

He had the award mailed to his parents at home, with his father’s name on the label. They were astonished to open the box and find the gleaming statuette inside. “We had no idea,” Larry Waters said.

Hans Winters’ 2011 Emmy was for Outstanding Technical Team Remote; specifically, for the work Winters and his colleagues did in filming ESPN’s coverage of the winter X Games in Aspen in 3-D. They used two cameras for each angle, one to film what viewers would see with their left eye, and the other to film the right, and wore large 3-D glasses while they reviewed the footage. “Everybody looked like Roy Orbison,” Waters joked.

Read more in this week's Mahomet Citizen