APEX, N.C. — Ryan Alberque caught the lacrosse bug early.

Then, just as quickly, he hit an accessibility roadblock.

When his older cousins and older brother wanted more development and structure, they had their pick of recreational lacrosse camps and leagues across North Carolina’s greater Triangle. But when Ryan, 12, who has Down syndrome, was ready to move on from front yard lacrosse into something more formal?

“There was nothing,” his father, Jim Alberque, said.

Thanks to Endless Sports, a local non-profit, that’s no longer the case.

Fueled by high school volunteers, sponsors and a director whose passion for the sport is perhaps only bested by his passion for helping others, Endless Sports’ new “inclusive lacrosse league” has emerged as a tangible — and popular — option for children, teen and adult athletes with disabilities across the state.

The non-profit hosted a free skills clinic in Raleigh in October, and Friday marked its fourth of six scheduled meetups in the Apex Community Center’s Gym 2, where 26 athletes and their families gathered for two hours of warmups, skills training, lacrosse scrimmages and occasional dance breaks.

Endless Sports has locked in a second six-week program for May and June, and its director, Scott Stein, is already in expansion talks with non-profits in Ohio and Oklahoma. There is, in other words, tangible momentum for inclusive lacrosse both regionally and nationally.  For Stein, that’s “just incredible.”

“It’s symbolic of how the sport’s growing, right?” he said. “And the popularity that it’s enjoying. Years ago, no one probably would had even thought of a special needs lacrosse program. But as the sport grows and more and more high schoolers are playing it, I think it lends itself to more groups like this.”

Stein was thankful for the help given to Endless Sports from USA Lacrosse, which awarded the organization with a First Stick Grant as well as apparel and other support. USA Lacrosse has several resources for those curious about adaptive lacrosse programs.

Lacrosse’s steady growth across the United States is also why Stein, 60, now dedicates most, if not all, of his free time to the sport despite growing up in New York and New Jersey knowing “nothing about it.”

The Steins were a baseball family living in California until elder son Skyler tried out for lacrosse on a whim and got hooked. By the time they moved to North Carolina three years ago, Skyler and his younger brother Ethan were longtime rec goalies, and Scott and his wife, Erin, were longtime lacrosse parents.

As for the inclusive lacrosse league: Stein has long involved his family in charity and community efforts, “so this was just natural,” he said. “There was baseball and basketball and hockey, but I hadn’t seen anything for lacrosse, so I thought, ‘OK, maybe there’s a niche there.’ We loved the game anyway.”

He made some calls, and things moved fast.

“My dad mentioned it one day, but he has all of these big ideas,” said Skyler, 18, a senior team captain and varsity goalie at Cary’s Green Level High School. “We kind of just brushed it off. ‘Yeah, that’s an awesome idea, but how are you going to make it happen?’ Next thing we know, the clinic’s tomorrow.”

Endless Sports’ debut clinic was a resounding success. Around 20 athletes with disabilities and their families gathered at an outdoor Raleigh sports complex in October to nail down the sport’s basics — ground balls, catching and passing — under the instruction of Stein and local high school lacrosse players.

The clinic happened on a Sunday, and one day later, Stein got a text from a mother in attendance. Her son, she said, was already dutifully asking her, “Do we have lacrosse again next week?” Anecdotes like that one were “very touching,” Stein said, and soon he was finalizing details for a full six-week program.

One athlete, in particular, couldn’t wait. When Alberque picked up his son, Ryan, from the middle school bus stop on a recent Friday, “it was what we were talking about all day after school,” he said with a laugh. “He was so excited about coming, and that made the whole family excited about coming, too.”

The Alberques filtered into the gym around 6 p.m. that night with 25 other families. From there, Endless Sports took the reins. Athletes suited up in donated equipment like lacrosse goggles, helmets and sticks and loosened up with warmups including butt kicks, high knees and Frankenstein walks.

Athletes then split up into four rotating groups to progressively fine-tune their skills — bending their knees to scoop up ground balls, switching their stick between hands mid-run, cradling — with volunteers leading drills at each station and Stein patrolling the gym, dishing out a mix of humor and motivation.

“That was beautiful!”

“You look like a hot dog with all of that mustard!”

“You guys have only been at this for a week? You look good.”

Miley Cyrus’ “Party In The U.S.A.,” Flo Rida’s “My House” and Reel 2 Real’s “I Like To Move It” (featured heavily in the 2005 kids’ film “Madagascar”) played during water breaks that doubled as dance breaks, and the night’s session ended with two 10-minute, full-court scrimmages heavy on cheering and scoring.

Seeing it all go down — the high schoolers volunteering, the parents chatting, the athletes smiling — reinforced to Stein that events like this “can help everybody a little.” And that there’s serious interest in lacrosse leagues for athletes with disabilities across North Carolina and beyond.

“There’s definitely a need,” he said.

Watching as 12-year-old Ryan Alberque ran around the gym with his younger sister to burn off lingering energy after another successfully executed (and highly anticipated) inclusive lacrosse outing, Jim Alberque agreed.

“When you have a child with a disability, you don’t know what opportunities are going to be available for him,” he said. “When they’re babies, you just don't know. Are they going to be able to be included in things? So programs like this, cases where is he is included, it’s good for us as parents, and it’s good for them as kids. It’s been awesome.”