Welcome to Echo From the Buttes

Let me be the first to offer you a warm welcome to your new home for all things Sun Devil athletics: Echo From the Buttes.

My name is David Howman, and I'm the editor-in-chief of this new venture. Typically, I don't like to be self-referential in this medium, but seeing as we're starting this site up now, it feels appropriate as a one-time thing.

You may recognize my name, or the names of some of our other writers here, from recent articles with Devils in Detail of the FanSided network. That's no coincidence.

Until a couple weeks ago, we all covered Arizona State athletics for Devils in Detail. And when I say Sun Devil athletics, I do mean all athletics: we were the only outlet to cover every single game for Arizona State hockey and women's basketball this past season, on top of the usual suspects of football, men's basketball, and hockey.

For reasons that were never sufficiently explained, FanSided - a company that publicly says it wants to provide spaces for the fans, by the fans - decided to shut down Devils in Detail in spite of us providing something that this incredible fan base has been begging for. Simply put, Arizona State fans deserve more, and FanSided's questionable decision-making doesn't change that.

In that spirit, we are continuing the work in a new spot: Echo From the Buttes.

Taken directly from the fight song that Sun Devil fans know all too well, Echo From the Buttes is also the name of a podcast that already existed, featuring the same people who were covering Arizona State via Devils in Detail. All that's changing is we're bringing our written coverage under the same name.

Of course, Echo From the Buttes is also a call to action. It asks for Sun Devil fans everywhere to cheer them on with vigor and passion, in many ways acting as a predecessor to Kenny Dillingham's Activate the Valley mantra. Of course, being an informed fan makes it that much easier to passionately show your Sun Devil pride, and that is what we intend to do here at Echo From the Buttes.

Our goal is to provide the highest quality coverage of all things Sun Devil athletics. There are other outlets in this space that do a very admirable job with one or two sports, or put their quality content behind a paywall. We have no problem with either of those approaches, but Echo From the Buttes seeks to provide more. We want to deliver all the high-level analysis for the ascending football team while also covering the rise of both basketball programs and the return of baseball to its historical prominence, and then some.

You'll find all of that here at Echo From the Buttes. Our writing team is committed to giving you every detail and insight on all things Arizona State athletics because we believe that's what you deserve. Our vision is to become the central hub for Sun Devil fans everywhere, the first place you go to find about the next big coaching hire or who the latest transfer portal commit is.

Right now is an unprecedented moment for Arizona State. Under the leadership of athletics director Graham Rossini, Sun Devil athletics is turning a corner. Football is rising to a Big 12 power; baseball is one of the top programs in the nation, with a second consecutive tournament bid squarely in its sights; Molly Miller has reinvigorated the women's basketball program after just one season, and Randy Bennett is about to do the same; Greg Powers is proving that Alex Meruelo dead wrong about whether or not hockey can thrive in the desert; and Arizona State already has seven Big 12 championships across multiple sports in just two years in the conference.

Something special is happening right here in Tempe, and we will be there to cover it all. So join us with all your Sun Devil pride at Echo From the Buttes and - as the fight song goes - give 'em hell, Devils!