So, Major League Soccer season is coming up. The Whitecaps are dallying, putting their roster together slowly, and still don't have any scoring punch. Well, I've learned my lessons from the best, and so it's with just a month left to go that I'm looking for a couple of transfers of my own.

Have you always wanted to blog for no money on a site with mediocre readership and lots of advertisements? Are you a fan of the Whitecaps or even some other aspect of western Canadian soccer looking for a place to shine? Are you, and I'm going to be blunt when I say this, a genius? Then Eighty Six Forever might just be looking for you.

I'm looking for a writer, or more than one writer, to help bring this site's roster up to snuff. Obviously, Whitecaps-related writers are very welcome. But so are people who want to do occasional features on FC Edmonton, or the Victoria Highlanders, or the Pacific Coast Soccer League, or some other part of this wild and woolly game in the wet and windy parts of Canada. I warn you that I am fairly particular about the quality of writing and analysis I'm looking for: somehow, a few people think this is an interesting, informative site and I'd rather keep that unearned reputation up if I could help it.

If this interests you (and I realize I've described this so appealingly), fire an e-mail to me@benmassey.ca and let me know. Time commitments, number of articles per annum, and the like are extremely flexible, so even if you think you don't have that much writing in you let me know.

Obviously, since you're at this website, you know how to find updates on this here website. Most people just set a bookmark and swing by the site now and again to see if something's different from last time. But apparently the social media thing is popular these days, and being nothing if not a trend-follower I've thrown Eighty Six Forever onto that bandwagon with the furious abandon of a crazed rhino.

If you're not familiar with our Twitter feed, @86Forever, swing by and give us a follow. It posts links to every update on this website, and it's a great place to ask me questions or tell me what an idiot I am without coming over and commenting. As well, you can feel free to follow my personal Twitter, @Lord_Bob, if you want to talk to a grumpy guy whose sports teams always seem to lose and who will constantly tell you about it if you let him.

Last and most recently, I've started a Facebook fan page, logically enough named Eighty Six Forever. If you like that page, updates on the website will be linked straight from your News Feed. In addition, the Facebook page will start to host pieces of multimedia that don't fit on the main site. Photos from the match or of cool things that wouldn't fit in an article - really, it'll be a Web 2.0 extravaganza.

Social media may just be a trend, but let no-one say I don't leap into a trend with both feet.

It seems not so long ago that western Canada was struggling through the soccer wilderness. The Vancouver Whitecaps were a middling team in the CSL or the APSL or the A-League or the USL First Division or whatever the hell it was called this week. The Edmonton Aviators of that same league came, saw, and collapsed after a single season. The Calgary Mustangs lasted a little longer but ended no less ignominiously. The glory days of competitive professional teams in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Victoria being broadcast on TSN (aah, the dulcet tones of Vic Rauter) were so far gone as to collapse into myth.

That's the environment I came into. Born in Edmonton, played youth soccer like so many million Canadian kids, and unlike most of them retained some casual interest. Watched those Aviators until they died, which was quickly even by the accelerated timeline of a teenager. Watched womens youth soccer or men's friendlies whenever they came to town, which wasn't often. And there were thousands like me out there, all clinging like limpets to each transient fix. Being a soccer fan in western Canada was to be a fan of European soccer because that's all there was. To me, the soccer dream was not seeing Canada qualify for the World Cup but traveling to England and seeing Manchester United or Real Madrid at their hallowed home pitches.

But a funny thing happened on the way to obscurity.

Out east, the game was still growing. Toronto FC made their way into Major League Soccer and were an instant hit. The Montreal Impact carried whatever their league was called on their backs both on and off the pitch. Soccer began to grow, then to thrive. The encroach of soccer proceeded west, and in what seemed like the blink of an eye my new adopted team, the Vancouver Whitecaps, had an MLS franchise. My old hometown, Edmonton, was granted an NASL team. There were rumours of more, so much more, to come that still haven't died down.

And with so much excitement, some idiot has to write about it. So welcome to Eighty Six Forever.

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