Alright y’all. We couldn’t wait around for the whole winter hibernation we promised. There’s just too much happening in the world of Carolina soccer, and we’re light sleepers.

Did you hear North Carolina FC joined USL? Or that FC Cincinnati stole a bunch of Carolina guys? How about that NWSL lost a team and relocated another? Is Charlotte’s Memorial Stadium getting renovated or not? Wait, why didn’t we get an MLS team? Asheville added a women’s club? And which World Cup group did the USMNT land in…. no, no, not going there. (Still in denial.)

We can’t possibly run down all of the soccer happenings in the entire world since last November, and we won’t even try. We will start up again next Thursday, Feb. 15, with coverage on the site, and we’ll try to do some offseason recaps as the 2018 preseasons start to get underway. Should be a fun year in USL… and NWSL, PDL, and NPSL too.

But today, we do have some exciting February developments here at Soccer ‘n’ Sweet Tea which, as you saw last week, now has a new logo courtesy of friend of the blog and designer Matt Granger…

I love everything about our new look. The ball, the pitcher, even the little ice cubes. It’s so much better than what I threw together on Photoshop this time last year, and a lot more versatile. Thanks, Matt. You’ll see this logo and various versions of it around the site (and on your laptop?) from here on out.

More on the parenthesis later … we’ve got a lot to get to.

We have a newsletter

First up, our biggest announcement: We’re launching a weekly newsletter, appropriately titled the Soccer ‘n’ Sweet Tea Weekly. Every Monday morning from March to November, you can have a little piece of Carolina soccer goodness in your inbox. It won’t be only articles either, but scores, schedules, member shoutouts, links, photos, bullet point summaries — whatever we think you need to see to catch up on the weekend’s action.

You’re gonna like it. We promise. Sign up at this link or in the box below.

To run that big addition, we added a gentleman by the name of Corey Inscoe to the SNST staff. I’m a little bit excited about this. Corey was born and raised in Cary, went to UNC Chapel Hill, moved to Charlotte after college, covered local sports for the Observer, ran their CharlotteFive outfit for a few years, and then decided we were way better than all of those things and now edits and helps run Soccer ‘n’ Sweet Tea. We’re stupidly lucky to have him on board.

I mean, we’re cooler than Cam Newton, right?

If you do sign up for our weekly newsletter, you’ll also get access to our new Carolina Soccer Fam Slack. There, you’ll be able to interact with us about our articles, talk with other members about Carolina soccer stories, share photos from games that could be featured on the site, and, well, whatever else people do on Slack these days.

We love local soccer, and we know that you do too. Hopefully, this online Slack workspace helps us all build a real community of fans across our two states. No harm in trying.

We have a Patreon page

Also included in the newsletter description above: “member shoutouts.” Yeah, that’s another new thing in 2018. Many of you asked last year how you could support our efforts here at SNST, and we kindly said “Nah, we’re good.” This year we’ll say, “Well… we have this Patreon page...” We resisted it for our first year, but with all the fun stuff we have planned for our second, we figured a few different levels of SNST membership might suit some of you.

Yeah, this button doesn’t work. Haha. Click here instead.

In 2018, we’ll still continue all the things we did in 2017 for free… but now, if you’re so inclined, there’s a way to show us some thanks. No pressure to do so, but we’d appreciate anything you can give to keep our coverage (and beer?) flowing. There’s going to be stickers, mugs, shirts, hats, and even scarves for all who do. Yeah, we’ll probably have to open a store at some point … but we’re not there yet.

On that free beat, a lot of our readers last year came from social media. Twitter was our biggest success, so we’ll keep that going, but we’re also going to make a more concerted effort on Facebook and Instagram this year, so make sure you’re following us there too. It’ll be worth it.

We have podcasts — a lot of them

What else… how about some podcasts? Last year, the SNST Weekly was a big hit, but that one is going on the back burner as we had a lot of requests for team-specific pods. Say no more. Talkin Jacks is back for season two for the Independence faithful, as is Ian Foster’s Front Porch Soccer, covering a wide range of soccer stories. The Oak City Supporters launched Six Point Weekend last week covering NCFC and the Courage, and we’re happy to be partnering with them. Chris Ashley and friends in Greenville launched Yeah, That Soccer Show to cover their new NPSL side and the local scene, and Chris will join us on staff here to write about their new club as well.

Subscribe to all of those. We’ve got three other podcasts prepping for launch in the next three months, and I’m excited about each of them (but sworn to secrecy.) Stay tuned.

Last but not least, our friends at OrthoCarolina are back for another go in 2018. We love them and all the things they support around the Carolinas, so if you have any sort of health care/urgent care needs, definitely go to OrthoCarolina.com and get yourself taken care of by the best in the business.

I think that covers it. Whew. If you couldn’t tell, we’re excited about the new logo, the newsletter, the Slack community, the Patreon and the merch, the podcasts, OrthoCarolina, all of it.

As we prepare for another season, this time with 12 Carolina teams across four leagues, we hope you’re excited too.

Oh, and P.S.… if you’ve ever wanted to blog about your local club, let us know, let us know, let us know. We’re always looking for new fans to join our group of crazy men and women who write about the game we all love so much.

P.P.S. Sign up for that newsletter!