Moving on from Dynamo Theory

The massive changes from SB Nation and parent company Vox has thrown many writers and editors like myself into a bit of a haze given how suddenly this all hit. Even more at once for me as I was in jury duty on exodus day to get a flood of bad news, plenty of RIPs from our writers' on Discord, and a lot of support when I turned my phone back on.

Clearly you all can see this was a wave that took the soccer community by storm and instead of trashing Vox and SBN - I've done plenty of that privately - I wanted to look back fondly on my time with Dynamo Theory because it's where I got my feet wet with journalism and writing for larger audiences. 

I was first brought on in 2012 or 2013 - it's been awhile and I misplaced my invitation email - by Stephen Eastepp. I commented regularly on the site as my love for watching the Dynamo grew. I had always loved the sport, but watching it was less involved than playing it was an adage I told myself growing up. I was wrong. I felt a sense of community and empowerment for a sport often underrepresented and misunderstood by large swaths of the American public. The conversations and people - the fans - drew me in.

From my early time figuring out our dashboard and Chorus and writing player ratings, I worked with and met amazing and talented people including Sean Ringrose, Alicia Tolar, Richard Willis, Harrison Hamm, Carson Merk, and someone simply known as Ginge who was there briefly while I was. I can relate to going by an alias as it was who the community knew me as before I was brought on board, but the list of talented individuals I got to know would be far too long to type them all out so if I left you off, I still value everything you've contributed. Additionally, being part of a network as big as SBN I got to discuss topics with other great writers from across the country about their teams and passion. The beautiful game at work after 90 minutes. 

I'm now and still part of an incredibly motivated team that I'm very proud of. While Dynamo Theory may be ending, it's more of a transition and I'm happy to do it with a great group of people focused on growth, quality content, and making my job as an editor easy. Looking backwards and the growth one has made can inform and motivate growth for the future. And there's lots to look forward in the future. 

-Derek Stowers aka Gribbs