This article appears in the May/June edition part of a series on community-based lacrosse leagues that are thriving despite the growing trend toward privatization in youth sports. Don’t get the mag? Join US Lacrosse to start your subscription.

Pete Kelleher, president of the Rhode Island Youth Lacrosse League, can’t exactly remember when the organization got off the ground.

But what he does know is Steve O’Donnell, the longtime boys’ coach at state powerhouse La Salle, and Kevin Murray, a former Bishop Hendricken boys’ coach who has since passed away, were at the forefront.

“We were looking last year to figure it out the exact date, but nobody could quite pinpoint it,” Kelleher said. “It had to be early 2000s. It was one of those things that was always there, and now most people aren’t around to ask.”

What Kelleher does know is that the RIYLL has taken off since he first got involved in 2010. He said there were nine programs and around 600 kids back then, and now there are more than 3,200 kids and more than a dozen programs. Some are regional-based, others are pillars of their towns, and there’s even Seekonk, Mass., and North Stonington, Conn. — two towns just beyond the Rhode Island border.

“It’s just exploded in the past decade, absolutely exploded,” Kelleher said.

Operating in the smallest state in America, much of the RIYLL centers around exactly that: size. To make the numbers games work, the pre-K through eighth grade league groups players together by grade. Seventh- and eighth-graders are together as they near high school lacrosse, fifth- and sixth-graders are together as they physically mature, and so forth. Players and coaches are close, too, because they’ve grown up together.

The primary season runs from March through June, and league champions are crowned at the end. The RIYLL also operates a fall ball league, which draws fewer numbers but creates teams across towns by quite literally drawing sticks from a pile. Kelleher called it a massive pick-up game.

All along, the RIYLL’s core purpose and focus remains the same.

“Our whole point is teaching,” Kelleher said. “It’s educating players about the game and developing their skills and understanding. Everyone wants to win a game, of course, but at the end of the day, is your player getting better? Are they understanding the details of the game? Are they looking forward to going to practice, or is it a situation where they roll their eyes?

“It’s really important that we create the environment with coaches to develop and teach,” Kelleher continued. “The lacrosse will take care of itself if we’re constantly trying to get better.”

And even as club lacrosse expands, the RIYLL’s numbers keep on growing as well. It’s only around $100 to $150 for most players to participate, and every town program is a non-profit. Some charge fees for uniforms, Kelleher said, but that’s all determined by how many players are involved.

It’s a cheaper option than club and is all about growing the game. There are challenges, such as coaches not growing up being lacrosse players, but Kelleher said even that’s starting to slowly fade away.

“We’re trying to make the level of lacrosse higher and catch up to the rest of New England,” Kelleher said. “That’s a priority, to also develop the kids. It always will be.”