By ALEX SPONSELLER

Herald Sports Editor

Cranston League for Cranston’s Future recently finished its winter programs and will be turning its attention toward spring in the coming weeks.

CLCF offered sports such as basketball, track, wrestling, boxing, soccer and pickleball while hosting baseball and lacrosse clinics as well. It was the league’s first winter season in its new building, which received a 1.2-million-dollar renovation and reopened last summer for its 3,000-plus members. 

“The CLCF building was so busy this winter and it was great to see. It was busy and well-used. People love how clean it is, it’s brand new and the vibe really made people happy,” said CLCF President Frank Notarianni. 

Notarianni is the head of the track program, which had a big season as it sent 14 kids to nationals and collected 14 medals in the process. The league also crowned new champions in its basketball divisions as well.

CLCF partnered with Special Olympics RI in 2024 as it introduced unified sports into the mix. The league hosted unified flag football in the fall and basketball in the winter. Notarianni has been pleased with the growth of CLCF’s unified teams and hopes to add more to the mix in the near future.

“That’s been really cool to see. It’s been a really nice addition to our family. They’re coming out, working hard and hopefully we can get more people into our (unified) programs,” said Notarianni, who said that most sports are capable of adapting to unified protocols, and could offer unified teams assuming the numbers continue to rise. 

The spring season will offer baseball, softball, lacrosse, track, soccer and pickleball while tennis is set to return in the summer months. CLCF had also begun offering free first aid training and AED training for all of its coaches. 

CLCF is proud of its new facility and looks forward to working with the community to provide kids with the chance to have fun competing in sports.

“We want to have partnerships, we want to work with everybody,” Notarianni said. “We want to help, we want to be able to give the children of Cranston a place to be active, enjoy it and learn from it.”