Way back in August of 2008, Sounder at Heart started. At the time I hoped that it would be a hybrid of KJR and USS Mariner, but talking about the Seattle Sounders. It’s become a bit more than that. This is the vision I shared with our 2017 staff as we head into a season defending an MLS Cup and defining what it means to cover teams both professionally and passionately.
Sounder at Heart (SaH) is the best site covering soccer in the Puget Sound. Our focus is on the Seattle Sounders, but we will not limit our informed, passionate approach to just the MLS side. We are people of the Sound – fans of the Reign, the Stars, the Academies. We live as soccer fans around Puget Sound, Washington and throughout the world.
Our Managing Editors are Dave Clark (Founder, 2008) and Jeremiah Oshan (also SB Nation Soccer Manager). Susie Rantz and Josh Yockey are co-Editors-in-Chief for Ride of the Valkyries.
We are not limited to the website. Check out our Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and we have the best podcast the Sounders community will ever hear. Nos Audietis are also on Twitter. Our Reign coverage is at Ride Of The Valkyries and is also on Twitter and Facebook. We maintain an apparel store at Gameday Depot.
Our community is powerful. It raises money for great causes (the two YachtCons have raised $8,500 for various Seattle Children’s departments). Past events have raised money for Haiti earthquake relief, Kingdom Hope, and the Lamar Neagle Foundation among other charities.
We participate in this community on social media as well as internal social functions (comments, FanPosts, FanShots). Almost all of our staff started as commenters on SaH.
Comments, FanPosts and FanShots are important to us. We cannot pretend that we know everything there is to know about soccer or the teams we cover. You can help teach us more about life and soccer, and whatever else we discuss on occasion here. Every single reader is valued.
But we are also more than community.
We are not traditional media, but Sounder at Heart has all the access they do. Spenser, Dave, Jeremiah and Scott are at practices covering the first team and S2. Jacob and Susie pop into Reign practices as well. We get original interviews and break stories as well as anyone. We also have room to discuss the team in depth, to talk about roster philosophies, bring rumors to light, discuss the Alliance Council, to talk about beer or pizza or gaming. SaH provides more context than any other Sounders themed site, and we capture what it means to be a fan.
We have fun. This must be fun. That’s what soccer is. It is our joy, our passion and our heart.
Welcome to Sounder at Heart. We carry a star on our chests now. We are going to be grander than we’ve ever been before. Regular features like Three Questions, the quick recap to immediately discuss what we just saw, community ratings, tactical analysis, gif posts, hype, poetry, StoryStreams, infographics, watercolors, video and podcasts will all be here. We will invent new ways to share our passion and knowledge, and all of it will recognize that being a Sounder is about more than soccer - it’s about love of our region, unified behind a ball, a couple goals and the men and women who represent us on the field.
In a week the season starts. Thank you for joining us in our ninth season.