The Seattle Reign play their first-ever NWSL home match in Spokane on Wednesday, when the Kansas City Current come to ONE Spokane Stadium for the first of three regular-season fixtures the club will play on the east side of the Cascades. Two more follow on Saturday, March 28, and April 4 — against Racing Louisville and Denver Summit FC, respectively — before the Reign return to Lumen Field in late April.

For people like me who grew up playing soccer in Eastern Washington, it's an exciting moment.

The soccer talent in this region has never been a secret, at least not to those of us who lived it. As a young girl growing up in Cashmere, a small town in Central Washington, the only club option available to girls like me was the Apple Valley Zephyr. There was one team, one age group, and we spent most weekends making early-morning drives to Seattle to find competition. The team only existed because a soccer fanatic named Dennis Tronson wanted to create opportunities for his daughters and, by extension, every other girl in the region who wanted to play. Tronson went on to become the Cashmere High School girls' soccer coach...