At just 10 years old, Bryce Weller has a clear vision of what he wants to do when he grows up: announcing sports. 

“That would be like my dream job,” he said. “If I were to be a podcaster and talk with famous people or be on ESPN.” 

But unlike most kids his age, he already has a head start. After receiving a podcasting kit for Christmas – by his request – he started his own sports podcast, B Royal Sports. He got the idea after coming across another kids’ sports show on YouTube. 

“I thought to myself in my head, ‘I can do that,’” he said, adding that it called to his future career choice. “And ever since Christmas, I’ve been doing it.” 

Each week, Weller spends two days studying before an episode. After choosing a topic, he’s on ESPN looking up stats and taking notes. From there he works on a recap to include, then he spends an evening recording.

For the show, Weller discusses game recaps and more. 

“I usually talk about whatever I watch, what I saw and my opinion and then stats,” he said. He also does predictions, for instance, guessing the CCCHS Tiger boys team would take third in a basketball game earlier in the season. Weller predicted the girls’ team would win the same tournament. His brother, who is a senior on the team, wasn’t happy about his third-place prediction; they ended up landing fifth place. 

“It’s a lot of work in one day to make it, then edit and polish it really well,” he said. “We end up working on it for a while.” 

He’s also getting used to the equipment, working on volume control and sound effect buttons; he’d like to use them more once he has a better feel for it, Weller said.

While it can be long and tedious, Weller said the positive feedback from others has inspired him to keep going. 

“A lot of my friends like it and they listen weekly,” he said. “Usually when people congratulate me, it makes me keep going. If I’m not in the mood to study, it’ll put me in the mood to keep going.” 

The goal for B Royal is to complete one episode per week, he said, which he Dad, Matt, said aligned with a school counseling program. 

“I wanted to set a goal that was achievable,” Weller said. He plans to hit 25 episodes by the end of summer, but may ramp up his show release as he gets older and more skilled in the process.

In the meantime, Matt, a former journalism teacher, has been helping with video editing. The pair use Final Cut Pro to create the final project. Matt also helps come up with interview questions or help find stats, if needed. 

“He’s a big help and then my mom, she’s a supporter,” he said. 

Another obstacle when creating the podcast was coming up with a name and a logo, the pair said. The name comes from Weller’s own name: B for Bryce, while Royal is his middle name, after the Kansas City baseball team. 

“I was born during the 2014 World Series,” he said. “So my parents decided to name my middle name Royal. And that’s why my logo is blue.” 

From there, local artist and former art teacher, Tracy Lebo, designed a logo, which was then printed, thanks to sponsorship money. 

Weller earns dollars per episode from his two sponsors, the first of which was Matt’s friend, then another local business became his second paying advertiser. 

“I appreciate people who are willing to donate that,” he said. 

After the sign, Weller’s sponsorship funds have gone back into the podcast and purchasing more equipment, like lights. 

Another format on the sports show comes in the form of industry interviews. To date, Weller has hosted Marc Henry, CCCHS football coach, and Chance Liebau, reporter for ESPN Wichita and their insider views. 

“Probably my favorite episodes is when I get to interview somebody,” he said. “First of all, it gets me more views, and second of all, I just like to talk with them.” 

Overall, Weller said talking about sports is a natural fit for him. With a sports-centric family, Weller said he loved competing from the first time he got to participate. 

“I do like sports, the first time I started playing was first grade and I just really love to play.” 

He enjoys baseball and football, but cited basketball has his favorite overall. 

One final goal for the podcast is a growing number of subscribers, Weller said. By the end of February, he averaged just over 200 views per video. 

“My goal is to get a good amount of viewers, so to do that you have to make a lot of episodes,” he said. “I don’t know if I’m going to succeed with it, but I want to get 1,000 subscribers by the end of this year. It will definitely be hard to gain that many viewers but I think I can do it.” 

B Royal Podcast can be found on YouTube @BRoyal14