Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Edwards.
Hi Steve, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
So I got into this business when I was a 15-year-old back in 1998. I was always interested in amusement parks and had an older sibling who worked at Coney Island. She was able to get my foot in the door and I was hired in the games area where I did speed pitch, duck ponds and all the other typical amusement park games. From my first day, I was hooked. I worked as much as 15-year-olds were legally allowed and soaked up the amusement park world from day one.
Over the years, my friends always referred to me as a “lifer”. I knew they were right. So over the next many summers I worked in the rides areas and became an operations manager after college. I eventually became Vice President of Operations in 2018 and have enjoyed the ride ever since. So this is my 24th season at Coney Island and I can say that I’ve enjoyed each one of them. Some years have been better than others but each year I try to have a few “wow” moments that I put in my memory bank to store away.
Those moments help to give me perspective that our team’s hard work pays off. For example, when I see a kid truly going crazy with excitement on a water slide or diving board; I will just watch and think “we were able to make that happen”. I think it’s awesome that I get to do that for a living.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The challenge of running any entertainment business is that you always want to find reasons for people to keep coming back. I believe the best way to do that is do what you do best and do it better than everyone else. For us, that’s always been Sunlite Pool inside Sunlite Water Adventure. Our pool is a 3 million gallon pool that you won’t see anywhere else so that’s what we need to do the best. So as crazy as it sounds the pandemic has forced us to focus on the things we do best which is running our water park.
A lot of the events we hold were canceled last year, but our water park was open. In the end, I believe our guests appreciated that they had a place to go to and enjoy. I think this has led to a newfound appreciation for the Coney Island water park experience. As far as me personally, I always find it a challenge to keep people happy. The world is always changing so what guests and employees value is always evolving. I want happy guests and employees and I work hard each day to find out what makes each individual happy. I always strive to be a boss that cares about people above everything else, because I believe that I am in the people business first and foremost.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
So what I do is oversee the daily operations of Coney Island. I have been in this current role since 2018 and at Coney Island since I was 15 years old. My job consists of working with our maintenance, aquatics, parking, and entertainment staffs to ensure that we are running a safe and fun operation. My daily duties change often, but my primary goal is to work with my staff to address any challenges and issues they are having and how can we best correct them.
I think the quality that sets me apart from others is my people skills. My best skill is my ability to read people and their emotions. I strive to know when our employees are upset and I want to fix it. I also love to see our employees happy because that means we are creating an environment that employees want to be at.
A lot of times, the job our employees are doing for Coney Island is a first job or a stepping stone to something else and I want to work with them to teach them how to be a better employee whether that is with us long-term or somewhere else. I think what I’m most proud of is just the journey of being a 15-year-old kid at his first job to eventually becoming the Vice President of Operations at that same place. That type of thing doesn’t happen often but I am extremely grateful and sometimes still amazed at how it has played out. I am very appreciative and thankful to all the people who have helped me get me here today.
We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I think something surprising that many people don’t know about me is that my first goal in life was to be a sports broadcaster. I thought that was going to be my job one day but after spending some time around that, I realized that working at Coney Island was just more enjoyable to me. It’s strange because I think I wanted to be a broadcaster because I wanted to be a performer on stage but I’ve learned that when you work at a water park or entertainment venue, every day is a show.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@coneyislandpark.com
- Website: www.coneyislandpark.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coneyislandpark/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coneyislandpark/
