Born: Lawrence

Occupation: Field research assistant for Kansas Geological Survey at Kansas University.

Family: Wife, Carrie; sons Jackson and Cooper.

Dream job as a child: Third baseman for the Kansas City Royals and power forward for the Kansas Jayhawks at the same time.

“Young me didn’t realize you couldn’t do both,” Wedel said.

Interesting fact: Wedel has the unpleasant distinction of getting kidney stones on five separate occasions.

Digging deeper: Wedel graduated from Tonganoxie High School in 1998. From there he earned a degree at Emporia State University.

Wedel and wife, Carrie, who is a counselor at Tonganoxie Elementary School, eventually moved to Wedel’s hometown.

“We wanted to move out of Lawrence,” Wedel said. “Tongie was a good fit.”

Carrie originally is from Illinois, but moved to Ulysses in Western Kansas. Her father’s job with Exxon Mobil landed the family in Kansas when Carrie was in the fifth grade. She went to Fort Hays State University and worked in Lyons for five years before joining the TES staff eight years ago.

Former TES teacher Debbie Wedel, Brett’s mother, actually introduced Carrie to Brett.

Carrie’s roots actually make for an interesting baseball household of generally long-suffering fans.

Brett is a Royals fan who, like much of the area and nation, got baseball fever with Kansas City’s exciting ride to the World Series.

Carrie, meanwhile, is a Chicago Cubs fan. Growing up in Illinois, she is a big fan of the Cubs, who haven’t been to the World Series since 1945.

Though he doesn’t get to visit the water often, fishing is one of Brett’s main hobbies, along with playing about any sport with his sons.

He joked that he “ties some of his own flies,” as in flies for fly fishing.