Introduce yourself 2013

A year ago, we copied an idea from Bless You Boys with an introduction post.

The purpose is to reintroduce contributors and readers who will be interacting throughout the season. Many of you stick around during the offseason, but traffic picks up when football season starts. We've also increased the readership since last year's introduction, and it's always nice to know more about people here. The introduction helps make people more than anonymous usernames.

At TOC, we pride ourself on the readership and interaction in threads and comment sections. Things can get heated, and punishment can be handed out, but we're all here for the same reason, and I'm looking forward to another year of knowledgable and fair discussion about MSU sports. Seriously, it's hard to get that for any team. If you ever have an extended opinion or thought about something, feel free to make a Fanpost on the right side of the front page. SB Nation's platform lets the readers be contributors, and I love pinning great fanposts to the top of the page.

Anyway, I'll start the introductions.

I'm Chris, your blog manager. I took the reins from Pete last spring while looking for writing work. I've since picked up a job with CoachingSearch.com, where most of my time and energy goes. But I was given the ability to keep doing TOC, for which I am very grateful.

I graduated from MSU in 2011 with a journalism degree. You may know that I grew up as a bit of a Michigan fan, but going to MSU was the best experience of my life, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I made lifelong friends, learned valuable skills and met my wife. We were married at the Alumni Chapel and had our reception in the Spartan Club a year ago.

Thanks to a supportive wife and family, I was able to stay in the writing game, and that remains the case. At MSU, I worked for The State News from 2008-11, covering football in 2009, men's basketball in 2009-10 and 2010-11, softball in 2010 and baseball in 2011 (and ASMSU in 2009). I also covered football in 2011 for The Oakland Press.

I've always loved college sports more than the pros. It's not about the amateurism, it's about the environments and the fans. No sport gives you such a variety of fan or culture like college football. The quality of football may not be as good as the NFL, but give me the Air Raid against the Triple Option. Nothing compares to college athletics when it comes to fan relationships with the organization. For most of us, we spent money being educated at MSU, sitting in class with football players we cheered on that Saturday. (I can remember my econ prof bringing up Kirk Cousins and Keith Nichol to the front of class and using made-up stats to compare them in 2008). There's a real connection in college sports.

As for other sports, I grew up playing ice hockey in the Detroit suburbs. I enjoy just about every sport, though I prefer college hockey and basketball over the pro versions. I also follow Manchester City in the EPL (since before they were winners, so save it). I know we have a lot of soccer fans here.

I first found out about TOC in 2009 when my State News partner on the football beat showed it to me. I'm honored to continue this site's tradition and standard, and I look forward to more adventures this fall.

That does it for me. Introduce yourself below.