I’m deep in the heart of Texas, folks. A new job, a full-time job, has taken me to Corpus Christi, on western edge of the glorious Gulf of Mexico, and that means my days as shopkeeper of ColoradoSoccerNow.com are at an end.

I’ll still be chiming in from time to time. C’mon, the World Cup is coming up! And who knows? Maybe I’ll be able to secure a day off when the Rapids head to Houston or Dallas. … But as far as being able to comment on the day-to-day goings-on in the soccer world of the Centennial State, it’ll be difficult to do so from more than 1,000 miles away.

I’m handing control of the site over to Metropolitan State College of Denver and the capable hands of Shaun Schafer, whose byline you’ve no doubt already noticed. Shaun is a Metropolitan State College professor and a Rapids season ticket holder who often commented on my work since we started the site a year ago. Yes, it was slightly more than a year ago when the Rocky Mountain News folded and I made the transition from FC Rocky to ColoradoSoccerNow.com. It’s extremely difficult to give up this venture; I learned much from 12 months as the editor, and I hope I was able to pass along some of that knowledge to my students at Metro State (another part-time position of mine that it’s hard to leave).

Donating the site to Metro accomplishes two goals for me.

First, the site lives on. Had I just turned off the lights and tacked a note on the door as it closed behind me, I would’ve been disappointed. I worked very hard to create a Web site from scratch, and I was proud of the site each and every day. You can tell I’ve been uber-busy the past month or so because the number of posts dropped dramatically. Even when I was busy working two other jobs, posting to the Web site was a pleasure. So to those of you who have enjoyed reading, give Shaun a chance. There’s more to come, and the content will head off in crazy new ways that I am incapable of predicting. That makes me happy.

Secondly: Although the site does have a loyal following, the real losers would’ve been a small group of local journalism students. I had three interns in the past year, and more are lined up for summer and fall. And if Shaun can swing it, many journalism students at Metro will have the opportunity to learn from their experience covering soccer for ColoradoSoccerNow.com. That also makes me happy.

Shaun will be the gatekeeper of the Web site, and he’s already got a talented crew preparing to go to work. The first new name you’ll notice should be that of photographer Jessica Taves. She’s got her cameras and lenses ready, and I’m very excited to see the work she produces.

So I’d like to thank everyone who had a hand in the creation and success of ColoradoSoccerNow.com (there are so many of you that I’m positive I would overlook someone if I were to try to list you all). And good luck to all future crews of this online soccer magazine. Journalism is alive and evolving on the Internet, and this little corner of the Web serves a precise focus and audience. Those are its greatest strengths.

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