The Royal City Reign is hoping to follow its moniker to a long and productive future in the Lower Mainland Metro girls' soccer league.

The under-14 Reign will mark its debut in the top-flight Metro division when the minor soccer season kicks off on Sept. 12.

The move to Metro is heartedly endorsed by co-head coach of the Royal City Soccer Association Ian Wakeling.

The last true Metro team from New Westminster was put together by the association's other head coach Gerry Heaney almost a decade ago.

Both coaches agree that the long-term viability of the club's program is to provide the stability and programs that will keep young players involved in the game in New Westminster.

While the Reign is in some ways the flagbearer of this new coaching philosophy, the under-12 Royal City Salsa may be the team that takes this intention to the next level.

The Salsa, under head coach Mike Stewart, has been undefeated in league play over the last two seasons and has a bright future ahead of it.

The Reign will no doubt feel the growing pains going up against the Lower Mainland's powerhouse associations.

"(The Reign) are going to be enthusiastic. There are a lot of good personalities and they picked up a lot of good players, but in all honesty, if they win 25 per cent of their games and they are in games all the time, I would say that would be a hugely successful year," said Wakeling.

The prediction is not a condemnation of the team's ability but more a realistic look at what happens at the Metro level from season to season, Wakeling added.

Teams are constantly folding and reforming, while the larger associations woo the better players to their own clubs, making it harder for smaller groups to remain on an equal footing.

The first step towards building structure in the Royal City is a girls' soccer academy that Wakeling has been running on Saturdays during past seasons.

"Absolutely, if we are going to be successful we have to do it," Wakeling said, adding that providing a consistent and happy environment for kids has been a good first step.

"Seventy-five per cent is still working on skills. Now the boys' side has been coming up and asking for the same kind of program for them to be put in place."

Reign coach Shawn Cody has been a huge supporter of the build-it-and-they-will-come concept.

"It became an obsession of mine to not make it like the grass is greener somewhere else," Cody said.

Before he pushed for an elite player program, Cody got himself on the club executive.

Now it is up to the girls themselves to repay those dues with some on-field results.

"I think our whole team is really excited about going Metro. I think we will have some challenges because we don't have all those provincial players, but I think we can do well," said 13-year right midfielder Carly Cody, who will enter Grade 8 at St. Thomas More Collegiate this fall.

"We're doing a lot of hard work, but we don't want to jinx ourselves. It's what we love to do. It's something we're devoted to. ... We want to do it."

Many of the girls began playing together when the team was called the Ravens.

The Ravens won the under-11 North District Cup four seasons ago, but it has been hard pressed to replicate that feat as the Reign.

"We're still thinking about that last year because most of the teams we were playing against are planning on going Metro," added Ally Fabian, a 13-year-old Glenbrook Middle School student. "When I think of the Reign, I think of tough competition and comparing ourselves with the other teams with skills and ball handling and things."

But Glenbrook forward Naomi Noda has a somewhat differing outlook on the new season.

"I'm excited because our team is a little bigger now. There's more people, more travelling, which I think is more fun, and we can learn more soccer skills," Noda said.

"I think it makes our chances better. Our team has been together, we've developed. We know our teammates and our weaknesses. It makes it easier to compete, I guess."

If the question of competing was ever an issue, it would have been quickly dispelled last season when the Reign won their division at the international Mayor's Cup soccer tournament in Las Vegas.

Members of the team also had success in beach soccer this summer, winning the Beach Blast five-on-five in the under-14 division back in July.

The Reign is heading south to Seattle this weekend for the annual Starfire tourney over Labour Day.