My name is Ashley Scoby, and I’ll temporarily be taking over the Sounders FC beat. I’m the summer sports intern here at The Seattle Times and will be covering the Sounders until The Times hires its next beat reporter to replace Joshua Mayers, who left the newspaper last week.

First a little about me: I’m a senior at the University of Kentucky, so I come from a basketball-crazed part of the country. I’m excited to take on the challenge of providing great soccer coverage for the many Sounders fans here.  I’ve already been impressed with the crazy atmospheres at Sounders games, and I’m looking forward to covering some big rivalry games in the coming weeks – Vancouver and Portland (twice). I’ll also be at Sounders practices and covering Reign FC.

You’ll find me writing for our print edition, as well as on Twitter and Facebook. And, of course, look for news, observations and analyses about the the team and about soccer daily here in the Sounders blog.

I’ll try to make this as smooth a transition as possible. If you have feedback, questions or suggestions for me in the next couple weeks, feel free to reach out via Twitter (@AshleyScoby), email (ascoby@seattletimes.com) or phone (206-464-2723).

Thank you for reading!