Meet the ICS Team: Kyle Kepner

My name is Kyle Kepner, and I'm an editor and writer here at ICS. Writing about myself isn't my favorite thing to do, no matter what Josh Beeman tells you, but I hope to give you some insight into what I do here and what I bring to our coverage.

Like lots of people, I played some soccer growing up, but my passionate interests were elsewhere. When I was in college, the 2002 World Cup piqued my interest, partly because some guys my age named Landon and DaMarcus were involved and playing well. A year and a half later while spending a semester in Costa Rica I discovered the basis for my interest in the game today: live soccer is basically the best thing in the world.

I knew of the United Soccer Leagues as early as 2007, but having no team in my home state of Arizona was the first and last reason that I didn't follow it. That all changed in 2013 with the introduction of Phoenix FC to the league. I watched that club's imminent implosion as a fan, and when the franchise rights to Phoenix were bought by local entrepreneur Kyle Eng, I decided to get more involved in the game.

During that 2014 season I began blogging about the new club on Reckless Challenge and eventually took on some leadership there. In the process I met a lot of players, coaches, and front office personnel around the league from doing interviews and arranging them for other writers and podcasters.

Long before joining ICS, I developed a preference for writing features and telling stories about the personalities and business aspects of the game. Since my background does not involve much of the technical aspect, I'll rarely attempt to quantify the value of one formation or player over another. Rather, I seek out intangibles and unturned stones to explain my observations. Given the fact that I still reside in Arizona, fans in Sacramento may prefer that I steer clear of passing uneducated judgement on Republic FC. Done and done.

For me one of the most fascinating aspects of the USL is the fact that it keeps growing. This provides a near-endless supply of story lines, as the league in 2016 will be all but impossible to consume. As my attention continues to be drawn to the league at large, part of my role at ICS will be to bring important news from around the USL to our readers, wherever they may be.

Please get me on Twitter @kylejkepner or by sending an e-mail to mailbag.ics@gmail.com if you have a story idea or there is a person or thing that you want to know more about. Thanks for reading!