There is a hush before any Iowa State athletic event, however, the one responsible is not necessarily a competing athlete.

Brian Honnold, associate director of games operations for Iowa State, was recently awarded the “4 Under 40” award by the Ames Chamber of Commerce for his work in the Ames community.

Honnold is the man behind the scenes of every athletic event.

“All of my work usually takes place leading up to it,” Honnold said. “I make sure schedules are on time and making sure the teams are on the schedule. Making sure that the floor is ready to go.”

The 4 Under 40 awards is celebrating its 10th year of awarding four individuals under the age of 40, an award meant to uplift the professionals in the Ames community.

“It’s humbling for sure, I would never have guessed that this would be something I would be nominated for,” Honnold said. “It’s nice to see all the hard work and long hours that I’ve put in is getting noticed. It’s all worth it giving back what the Ames community has given me.”

A long-time friend and colleague, Seann DeMaris, nominated Honnold. They have known each other since having classes together at Iowa State in the early 2000s. Honnold and DeMaris’ friendship turned into working together for events that use ISU buildings.

“I nominated Brian because he is an individual who is behind the scenes,” DeMaris said. “Not somebody who seeks the limelight. He works hard and does it a lot for our events. He is somebody that is a key component of our events.”

Honnold was one of the four recipients who won the 4 Under 40, all of whom were nominated by someone in the community. From there, members from various parts of the Ames Chamber of Commerce, Young Professionals of Ames and numerous volunteers vote for the winners. 

The Young Professionals of Ames and the Ames Chamber of Commerce are the groups that give out the award annually.

“His role is not as public as other past winners,” said Haley Cook, former president of Young Professionals of Ames, a previous 4 Under 40 winner and a program coordinator in agriculture communications. “He and his team provide an emphasis on Cyclone fans and add to the vitality of Ames. When the lights go on we go in as fans. We don’t realize the process that it takes to go in for fans to enjoy the game.” 

Honnold also plays a part beyond ISU athletics with his involvement of the Special Olympics Iowa.

“One of the big events that I deal with is the Special Olympics of Iowa, that’s one of the more rewarding,” Honnold said. “It’s very labor intensive and you are doing a lot of running around because you have a lot of people who want to be involved but there are so many people, they need to be involved. So you are constantly moving around.”

Seven ISU employees have won the award over the past 10 years. Cook and Melissa Rowan, an assistant with the ISU Foundation, were two of the recipients in 2014.

“Once the game starts everything is kind of out of my hands,” Honnold said. “You’ve got 14,000 people in the arena and it’s like all right, here we go. Ready or not. It’s nice to sit back and watch it all play out.”