Sophia Caraballo couldn’t contain herself. She was playing on the sidewalk of Ohio City’s 48th Street and saw her aunt, Rosa Garcia, pull up to the driveway. Caraballo darted toward the car, with a beaming smile on her face, wearing her lime green that had “Lacrosse Communities Project — Cleveland” emblazoned on the front.

Caraballo excitedly told her Aunt Rosa how she had taken part in the launch of the Lacrosse Communities Project at Urban Community School in Cleveland on Sept. 15, an event that culminated with the unveiling of a new small-sided lacrosse field funded by US Lacrosse. They had watched the field develop from just a patch of soil, separated by a line of trees from the Regional Transit Authority tracks.

“She went on talking about running up and down the field, and the mayor was there, and there were cameras, and her friends were there,” Garcia said. “She went on and on, and remembered everything on that day and how it brought excitement to her.”

Garcia will never forget the way her niece smiled and the joy she had when talking about lacrosse — a reminder of how far Caraballo had come in four years since she left her immediate family.

Caraballo grew up in nearby Lakewood, living in a household where drugs were being abused. At age 2, she moved to Ohio City to live with Garcia, who became her guardian. She was in a stable household, but behavior problems arose.

Caraballo needed another outlet to express herself, so Garcia signed her up for ballet and cross-country at UCS. The girl began learning to work with others and how to be responsible for herself.

Now in first grade, Caraballo continues to flourish at UCS and has found another sport in lacrosse along with her cousins, Jose and Joell Garcia.

“With sports and lacrosse, it really helps this child that statistically probably would have been in the foster care system and having terrible grades in school,” Garcia said. “Sophia is a success story, and it’s not going to get any worse, only better for her.”

Sophia’s story is one of many in Ohio City — a community on Cleveland’s West Side with a poverty rate of 39 percent. As a result, children in Ohio City often lack the resources to play a sport like lacrosse.

Ohio City provided a fitting location for the next installment of the Lacrosse Communities Project, a new nationwide program developed to give opportunities for children to play lacrosse from grade school to adulthood, geared toward those in underserved urban populations.

US Lacrosse selected Cleveland as the second pilot site — following Albany and preceding Brooklyn — and along with its North Coast Ohio chapter committed $300,000 in local and national funds to Ohio City. The funds not only went toward the field, but also will help in the introduction of lacrosse and wellness programming on the field and in the community.

UCS president Tom Gill, Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson and councilmember Kerry McCormack all attended the Sept. 15 event. Gill and his 580 UCS students helped christen the field, and then 40 children took part in a clinic hosted by Cleveland State men’s lacrosse and Baldwin Wallace women’s lacrosse.

It’s just the start of a movement in Ohio City.

“Making sure kids have a safe place to play is a huge priority for us in urban education,” Gill said. “We’re going to build this thing, we’re going to blow it open, it’s not going to have a lock on it, and we’re going to program the hell out of it. That’s what’s going to happen. That’s when it works.”

It was a “perfect confluence” of events that brought the Lacrosse Communities Project to Ohio City, a neighborhood that borders the Cuyahoga River. Ohio City boasts 9,000 residents and is one of just three neighborhoods in Cleveland continuing to grow despite an overall drop in population in the city.

Although the neighborhood has seen extensive renovations in recent years — particularly along 25th Street, where the historic West Side Market resides — there are still 2,000 people living in public housing within Ohio City. That’s 22 percent of the neighborhood’s population situated primarily in two housing developments — the Riverview Tower, which borders the Cuyahoga, and the Lakeview Estates, separated from the rest of the neighborhood by the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway.

The poverty rate in Ohio City dwarfs the national rate of 12.7 percent. Gill said he’s made an effort to get children involved in Urban Community School activities.

“Our kids aren’t robots,” Gill said. “Athletics at a school likes ours can be huge. Physical activity, our kids tend not to go outside once they get home because of the neighborhoods that they live in.”

Despite its challenges, residents praise and celebrate Ohio City’s diversity — 54 percent of the community is white, 34 percent black and 18 percent Hispanic. In addition, the neighborhood has welcomed many refugees.

This diversity is reflected in the population of Urban Community School, its new field envisioned as a destination of common ground.

“They are those ‘third spaces’ where all the people from the different backgrounds come together,” said Tom McNair, executive director for Ohio City Inc. “That’s one of the things that we try to do, is take this separated yet diverse neighborhood and try to find avenues to pull it together.”

McNair worked with Near West Recreation in 2012 to debut a tee-ball league that featured 67 kids in its first season. That has since expanded to more than 1,000 children, giving hope that a lacrosse league could have the same effect.

St. Ignatius — a private high school in Ohio City with a rich lacrosse tradition — offered to host free clinics in 2015. Dave Cerny, past president of the US Lacrosse North Coast Ohio chapter, enlisted the help of Cleveland State coach Dylan Sheridan.

Along with the clinics, children were invited to watch a Vikings game last spring. For many, like UCS second-grader Leo Zucca and his family, it was the first time seeing the game.

“The lacrosse community in Cleveland is growing,” Sheridan said. “It’s first-generational in many ways, but our university will play a large role in exposing a lot of the young people to the game at the highest level. Hopefully it’ll motivate them to get involved, stay involved and give back.”

The new turf field at UCS, built on the patch of land that stood vacant for over 50 years, will make the sport accessible. The field will be open to the public and will host clinics and other lacrosse programming.

US Lacrosse and Ohio City Inc. are funding a paid lacrosse manager position to deliver learning activities for kids, parents and coaches not only at UCS and Near West Recreation, but also at surrounding schools and rec centers.

“The field is just one piece of this puzzle,” said Drew Roggenburk, current North Coast Ohio chapter president. “The real meat of this project is staffing and committing focused resources.”

Local college players, like Heidelberg’s Chris Storrs and Max Rennillo, also will have a hand in giving back. Rennillo was raised in Shaker Heights on Cleveland’s East Side and Storrs grew up in the suburb of Euclid. Rennillo picked up the game at St. Ignatius and Storrs did the same at Benedictine. Now they play on the new Heidelberg team in Tiffin, Ohio. However, they wish the game had been offered to them earlier.

“If I would have started at a younger age, like 5 or 6, how much would my game have grown?” Storrs said. “I could have been 10 times better.”

The hope for the Lacrosse Communities Project in Ohio City is to create a sustainable model for youth lacrosse that spans multiple generations. With the help of Near West Rec and other local organizations, US Lacrosse will look to develop feeder schools, inter-team rivalries and coach training to advance the sport.

“Those children of diverse and mixed backgrounds are starting to feel like they’re worth it, too — that they are capable and able to have their hands in something that seems so farfetched,” Garcia said. “It brings hope and opportunity for the families and the children.”

The Lacrosse Communities Project

For decades, US Lacrosse has deployed resources in cities to put sticks in hands and schools, educate coaches and train officials.This initiative is the evolution of those efforts to foster sustainable urban growth.

WHO

The Lacrosse Communities Project is a joint venture of US Lacrosse, local chapters, schools and community organizers.

WHAT

Complete infusion of US Lacrosse resources and programs — up to and including the construction of a field where green space is at a premium — in the most racially, ethnically and economically diverse neighborhoods in cities around the country.

WHEN

Pilot sites in Albany and Cleveland (Ohio City) launched in June and September, respectively, with Brooklyn (Gravesend) scheduled for 2018.

WHERE

Albany, Cleveland (Ohio City) and Brooklyn (Gravesend)

WHY

US Lacrosse identified these hubs because they feature US Lacrosse chapters, community-based organizations that are devoted to reinvestment in their neighborhoods, an accessible network of public schools and medical partners to deploy wellness programming — all of which are necessary to create self-sustaining sport ecosystems. “This is a lacrosse infrastructure-building project,” said Joshua Christian, managing director of sport development. “It’s all about the partnerships that really don’t leave.”

HOW

1. Make strong connections with local stakeholders, community organizations and every school, after-school and recreation program in the neighborhood.

2. Identify a hub — a park or school — that’s accessible to all.

3. Provide focused resources and programs such as US Lacrosse First Stick equipment grants, the nationally recognized PE curriculum, and certified coaches and officials training.

4. Build or improve an athletic field where boys and girls can play. (For Cleveland, US Lacrosse collaborated with Official Turf Provider, GreenFields, to install a small-sided field at Urban Community School.)

5. Promote lifetime heart-healthy habits, integrating CPR and AED training.

To learn more about the Lacrosse Communities Project or to donate to any of these pilot programs, visit uslacrosse.org/communities.