Phil West is the Managing Editor and primary Austin FC writer for The Striker.

West, who has been Texan since moving to Austin in 1994, is a veteran freelance writer whose work has been featured on MLSSoccer.com, on the Austin FC website, on Arsenal.com, and for numerous other websites and publications, including The Daily Dot, Nautilus, Pro Soccer USA, Howler, Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Antonio Express-News, Austin American-Statesman, and Austin Chronicle. He's written two books about soccer for The Overlook Press, The United States of Soccer (2016, paperback version 2017), and I Believe That We Will Win (2018). He is also a senior lecturer in The Writing Program at UTSA.

His first encounters with soccer, growing up in Seattle in the '70s and '80s, involved the NASL edition of the Sounders and getting rained on as a youth soccer player; neither of those took him off the path of loving the beautiful game. He enthusiastically lives in Austin with his wife, three children, and two dogs, and when he's not consuming soccer or writing, chances are he's on a bike or seeking out compelling new music.