Introducing The Blue Testament

I would like to take a moment to re-introduce our site and to announce a change. When I took over as the manager of this site, it had a terrible reputation. That reputation was not entirely undeserved but it was also certainly not fair either.

This site was started by Andy Edwards, a permanent friend of the site. Andy loves soccer, loves to analyze soccer and loves to talk soccer. Andy moved on to other opportunities and who knows, maybe he will be back someday.

When Andy was not at the helm, there were others who stepped up and did their best. They kept the site going but there were a few mistakes made by some people with more enthusiasm than experience. Mistakes are the best ways to gain experience and there was some experience gained.

I was asked to take over as manager of the site but hesitated for several reasons. When I finally accepted it was with a couple conditions.

The site had always covered Sporting Kansas City and only them. A story about National Team call ups yes but there was no doubt of the focus. I wanted to cover soccer in the region, not just Sporting Kansas City. Yes they are the big dogs in our soccer world here but there is more soccer that deserves to be covered.

We are lucky to have so many good teams, great players and great stories to watch and cover at all levels. There was a national team qualifier, Sporting KC winning the Cup, CCL, Besler, Zusi, Nielsen. So many fantastic stories but they were not alone. FC Kansas City started up last year and had so many great national team players on their roster and getting to see Lauren Holiday blossom into the league MVP and Erika Tymrak overwhelmingly win the rookie of the year. Not to forget the Missouri Comets making the playoffs yet again, leading the league in scoring and having so many dramatic games. Throw in all the youth teams, futsal tournaments, supporter groups and there is a lot that is worthy of attention.

My first condition was that from the moment I took over we start covering those other teams and players. Sporting KC still got the best and most coverage but now FC Kansas City, the Missouri Comets and whatever we could find time for was covered.

Me second condition concerned the name. The Daly Wiz with its throwback reference and not so subtle pee joke was slightly irreverent and fit the approach at the time. Two problems was that teams did not want to link or tweet or acknowledge that name and it did not represent me or the current staff.

The search for a new name was long and difficult. We wanted a name that tied in with Kansas City, with our soccer teams and our vision for the future. We wanted Blue in the name. SKC, FC Kansas City (the Blues), the Comets all have blue as a primary color. Even a lot of college and amateur teams have blue as part of their logo.

All the variations on Blues, Kansas City and soccer seemed to be taken. Finally a revelation hit and Ben came up with the Blue Testament.

Testament: something that serves as a sign or evidence of a specified fact, event, or quality.

The Blue Testament, serving to give evidence about events, facts and qualities. We had a winner. The domain name was available, the powers that be at SBNation approved and the ‘ultra-speedy' six month process of a name change started. We are now here. The official name has changed. TheDailyWiz will now take you to the The Blue Testament.

While I have your attention, let me introduce our staff:

Ben - A full-time student studying journalism and political science. Ben carried the load for a long time while trying to get me up to speed. Some day he will be interviewing and writing about presidents while I am still talking to soccer players about the next game and discussing the 35^th expansion team draft. I am pretty sure Ben will be jealous.

Jough - Our resident number cruncher, a stats aficionado that can throw numbers together, analyze them and spit them out faster than ribs at a BBQ eating contest.

Calvin - Our soccer culture expert. A film major at UMKC that keeps up on all the trends, supporters and style in soccer around the world and will eventually see Sporting KC win in every stadium in person but will have enjoyed the journey even when they don't.

Thad - A refugee from the corporate world. A Number of years in the Marines and then in management led me to put my photography hobby to use. A swing by practice one day, a few photos later they thought I was media. Never looked back at the corporate world.

It's been an amazing few years in Kansas City and more to look forward to in the future. We have great teams, players on national teams, championships being played for and won. There are soccer fields and futsal courts popping up all over the area and homegrown players making an impact on all of those teams. Plans for the national training center is just icing on the cake.

I don't want to get into the argument about whether or not we are the soccer capitol of the United States. It does not matter, team fortunes ebb and flow, wax and wane. We will have up years and down years but Kansas City has deservedly taken its place among the best soccer cities.

We want to grow this site to match the cities growth. We have some great plans for continuing our coverage. Please take time to read, comment and let us know what you want to see here.

Thank you,

Thad Bell

P.S. - We are looking to enhance our coverage of soccer in the area. If you are interested in joining us and helping us grow our coverage, please contact us.