Well, not exactly a kid -- unless 49 is the new 18.
Changes are afoot at The Daily Wiz, and I'm pleased and proud to be a part of them. It's an exciting time to be following Sporting Kansas City, and that level of intensity is about to kick into an even higher gear with the onset of the postseason.
There'll be more to talk about in the coming days, as Sporting close out the regular season and head into the East playoffs, but for now a simple "Hi, I'm Steve" is in order.
So ... Hi, I'm Steve. Native Kansan, lifelong soccer fan, sports journo (with some intermittent breaks) since my teens. I've written about Sporting, and the Wizards before that, for roughly a dozen years now: the ups, the downs, the moves, the coaching changes, the sale, the rebranding and now the resurgence. (And somewhere, in my closet, I have a jersey Chris Henderson gave me at the Media Day before the 1999 season.)
Full disclosure: I write for several outlets in addition to this one. Now, the "however": I won't cut-and-paste something else into this space and try to sell it to you as a fresh take. I won't even cite or quote myself, unless someone else brings it up first -- and only then for the purpose of clarification.
Those years of "No cheering in the pressbox" have made me less a fan and more a chronicler. I don't live and die with the team, because the stories still have to be written either way. I also have a marked bent toward comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable, and to asking questions that I hope will push buttons and elicit genuine responses.
That said, this isn't "my" site. It's yours. The fans'. And if there's one thing sports fans love to do, beyond cheering on their favorite teams, it's -- well, pick your favorite word and run with it.
Debate. Discuss. Dissect. Argue (but keep it civil, please and thanks). Without that sort of give-and-take, it just isn't as much fun. In other words, don't be shy about expressing yourselves and engaging with the contributors. That's what we're here for.
And with that ... here's to what's ahead, on the pitch and on the page.