reign | the team

Going West
Ice hockey club moves its kingdom to the Inland Empire

By J.P. HOORNSTRA

IT WAS HORACE GREELEY in 1865 who told young men to go West, but not until the late 20th century did a professional hockey team make it out to the West Coast.

And it wasn’t until Feb. 26, 2008, that the Inland Empire got its first professional hockey team, a rink, a logo, a Zamboni and everything else included. On that date, the ECHL approved a transfer of the Texas Wildcatters franchise to become the Ontario Reign.

ECHL originally stood for East Coast Hockey League, but the league is now recognized by its acronym. It has 24 teams in 16 states from Alaska to Florida, and serves as a sort of Double-A to the National Hockey League. The Inland Empire 66ers and Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, by comparison, are Single-A affiliates of Major League Baseball teams.

As NHL teams moved westward, management wanted their farm teams closer, too. Since 2001 the Los Angeles Kings’ ECHL affiliate had been located in Reading, Pa., almost 2,700 miles away. So when the Wildcatters of Beaumont, Texas, announced the move to Ontario, 35 miles east of L.A., it was a natural choice to partner with the Kings.

The Reign will play against teams from Bakersfield, Stockton, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Anchorage, Alaska; Boise, Idaho; and Victoria, B.C.

They also would need a place to play, of course, and Citizens Business Bank Arena fits the bill. The Reign will play 36 games at the venue this season, with the home opener scheduled for Oct. 25.

Construction began in 2007 on the 11,000-seat Arena, which also will host concerts and basketball games, with a grand opening set for Oct. 18.

That was the same day the Reign were set to play their first game, in Bakersfield.

To do that, they would need players as well as a coach. Karl Taylor had been the coach for three years at Reading when he was hired in June to coach the Reign. The 37-year-old was familiar with the Kings organization and leapt at the chance to join the expansion franchise.

He was blessed with the rights to 17 players from the Wildcatters, who had finished 2007-08 tied for the best regular- season record in the ECHL. Some of those players were traded for others who began the season on the current roster, while others chose to sign elsewhere.

The season also brings the promise of some of the Kings’ recent draft picks making appearances in Reign uniforms, or even the NHL players themselves showing up on injury rehabilitation assignments.

For the Inland Empire, it’s a big leap forward into the world of professional sports.