As Detroit City FC earned success year-in and year-out over the past three years, the aspirations of many players suiting up for Le Rouge over that time had been to make the move up to join a club in the USL Championship.

Sitting in the locker room at Toyota Field last Saturday night, preparing to face San Antonio FC ahead of the club’s inaugural game since its game-changing move to the second tier late last year, DCFC Head Coach Trevor James reminded the players that made the step up with the club of that fact.

“Bringing those lads along, in my opinion they are good enough to play in the USL Championship, but they’ve never been given the opportunity,” said James this week. “So, that was part of what I said before the game. We’ve talked about this, we’ve wanted to do this, you deserve this opportunity, so now it’s about going out and enjoying the game at this higher level. … Go and show people that you always have been good enough to play at this level.”

In certain ways, you can see a similar theme in James’ arrival to guide Detroit City’s path into the professional ranks in 2019. A former player, assistant coach and scout during a lifetime in the sport, James had had seen the highest levels and experienced the biggest games but had never held the role of Head Coach.

After being contacted shortly before the Christmas holiday in 2018 by Detroit City’s ownership after the decision of former Head Coach Ben Pirmann to join the staff at Championship club Memphis 901 FC, the vision and opportunity presented by the club found a match in James’ own ambitions to take on the role.

What’s made the relationship between James, his players and the club equally successful is the shared vision for how a team with deep roots in its community can and should operate. For James, that mindset came in part from his longstanding relationship with legendary manager Sir Bobby Robson, for whom he became a youth player at Ipswich Town at the start of his career and then in subsequent years worked for as a scout as Robson guided England’s Men’s National Team on the international stage, including to the Semifinals of the 1990 FIFA World Cup, and in following years managed iconic clubs including FC Barcelona, Porto, and Newcastle United.

“I first met him when I was 15, 16 years old as a young youth player at Ipswich Town, so I had him as a coach, and I learned a lot from that,” said James, “but a lot of it was about respecting the game, respecting everyone in the game, self-discipline, working very hard, being honest, and treating everybody the same. I do that, but I revert back to my time at Ipswich Town as a player. After training he would make a cup of tea and put it on a tray and take it to the laundry ladies, or he’d go and sit under the stand with the grounds men and have a cup of tea there.

“That was a life lesson that everybody is very important in what they do, and you treat everyone with total respect. That was a big life lesson for me that I’ve put into my day-to-day running of this football club, and not only work-wise, but life-wise.”

The core idea of equality across the team and staff, where everyone’s value and worth is respected, is central to Detroit City’s ethos as well. It’s something James has aimed to apply on the field in the players he’s acquired for the squad and the well-drilled, organized team that put on a solid debut performance despite falling to San Antonio last week.

“We’re a good group of people, but we do value what everybody does, so I try to build on that within the culture on the football side of it, and that’s just taken onto the field,” said James. “We take that on the field, and we’ve become a very self-disciplined, honest, responsible team. We take responsibility for what our roles are on and off the field, and that’s what got us success to this point. We know this is a massive jump, but we’ll still try to have the same values to play in the same way.”

That club culture, fostered over the past decade since the founders and five co-owners, led by current CEO Sean Mann, established Detroit City FC, will be on full show on Saturday when the club hosts its inaugural USL Championship home opener at Keyworth Stadium. After seeing the emotion of the travelling support that followed the side to San Antonio last weekend – and will travel the country in support of Le Rouge this season – James expects the day will be a special one for everyone who’s played a role in the club’s rise as the Charleston Battery, themselves one of the most historic clubs in the United States, come to visit.

Amid that emotion, James will remind his players again to embrace the opportunity they have to deliver a day that will be another landmark in the club’s remarkable journey.

“I think it’ll be very emotional for a lot of people,” said James. “I think it’ll be very emotional for the fanbase and the supporter groups who’ve been coming for 10 years, and I’m looking forward to them having a great afternoon and focusing on giving them the result they want, to win the game and send them home ready for next week.

“It’s going to be such an emotional day, it’ll be one that a lot of people will remember for the rest of their lives.”