Superior H.S. alum wins Emmy award for work at ESPN

Dreams, determination and lofty goals.

The combination of those qualities plus unwavering parental support are the main factors why a girl from a Montana town so small Wikipedia lists it as a “populated area” now has an Emmy Award.

The girl, Emma Reed, who grew up in Cyr, Montana, and now works as an Associate Producer for world sports leader ESPN said this type of dream can come true for anyone.

“Don’t underestimate yourself and your potential. Set those lofty goals and make it happen.”

Happen it did for Reed, who graduated with honors from both Superior High School in 2006 and Iowa State University in 2010. After exploring becoming a veterinarian at ISU, she realized the site of needles and blood overrode her love of animals and she switched her major to Journalism in Mass Communications.

Her path to an Emmy began with a phone call two weeks after her December 2010 graduation from Iowa State. On the other end of the line was a representative from ESPN.

Prior to graduating, her dream was to work for either Oprah Winfrey and her television production company or ESPN. With the country in a recession and jobs scarce at the time she came home from college frustrated with not having a job in hand.

“Those were lofty goals for sure,” she said. “But I was determined to land one of those positions whether it took a year or 10 years.”

After applying to both powerhouse entities and submitting resumes to a “slew” of posted opportunities in the Iowa and Illinois area only one responded. ESPN reached out to her for a phone interview while she was home in Cyr, a one-time railroad town between Alberton and Superior.

“After hanging up from my interview with ESPN I thought for sure I was not going to get the position,” Reed said. “They gave me a sports knowledge test and despite studying for hours before the interview I had to answer ‘I don’t know’ to many of their questions.’”

Two days after Christmas that year, she was offered a job with ESPN.

“I had just finished unpacking my belongings at my parents house and my phone rang,” she said. “It was ESPN offering me a position.”

A short time later she was off to Bristol, Connecticut, where ESPN is headquartered.

The initial offering was a job as a Production Assistant. She first worked in screening, where she helped assemble sports highlight clips for the network’s SportsCenter program. In that capacity she became skilled in graphics, presentation and electronic illustrations for the program.

Over time she was part of producing sports programming for several national sports events, including college basketball and professional hockey.

That experience and her work on sports documentaries and a recent stint as Associate Producer with Monday Night Countdown, the popular and highly successful pre-game show prior to Monday Night Football, became instrumental in her nomination for an Emmy.

She won the coveted award in 2018 for “Outstanding Sports News/Feature Anthology for features that aired on E:60 and ESPN 2.

The actual award arrived at her Connecticut residence Jan. 7.

Back home in Cyr, her parents Paul and Pam Reed, owner/operators of Reed Mountain Construction, said they are extremely proud of their daughter but not totally surprised at her success given what they saw while she was growing up.

“She sent a video of her opening the box the Emmy came in,” said her mother, Pam Reed. “She was always a very determined child.”

While a student at Superior High, Reed played volleyball and participated in video production work at the school, including producing a video about civics teacher Charlie Crabb’s government class. She also made several home videos and pursued writing opportunities in high school.

After graduating from Superior High, she checked out all the Montana colleges and universities but with help from a family friend with ties to Iowa State she chose the Ames, Iowa school.

“While she was there touring the school,” Pam said. “She attended a volleyball practice, thinking she might like to play there. By time practice was over she realized the best path would be to focus on academics. The coaches and the entire team came over and thanked her for considering ISU volleyball and she decided that was a good place for her.”

Her mom credits her success on her can-do attitude from a young age.

“We never handed her anything, she always had to work for it,” Pam said. “We never really had a thought she’d end up at ESPN, we just wanted her to be a good person, to be kind and to do something she liked. What else could a parent hope for?”

With a bright future ahead of her, Emma said she is looking forward to what lies next.

“We shall see what the future holds,” she said. “I’m asked a lot by my colleagues, ‘where do you see yourself at ESPN in 5 or 10 years?’ I can never answer that because I don’t know what opportunities lie ahead. What I do know is I love my job, where my career has taken me and I met my future wife (an ESPN Director) at the World Wide Leader.

“I have a lot to be thankful for in my nine years at ESPN and I look forward to the next adventure.”

In the meantime, she thinks fondly of her Montana upbringing and roots.

“I take a great amount of pride being from Montana,” she stated. “It’s my roots, my core, my love. I still have my 406 (area code) number and refuse to let that go.

I may not get back to Montana as much as I’d like to but I cherish and love being able to call it home.”