When New York City's Public School Athletics League started the nation's first interscholastic cricket league this spring, it said a lot about life in the ever-changing Big Apple.

Many new Americans want to hold on to a piece of their homeland. A walk through any of the city's neighborhood parks filled with these newcomers shows the scope of their love for the world's second most popular sport - cricket.

More than 20 percent of the city's population now comes from cricket-loving parts of the globe, such as South Asia and the Caribbean. An overwhelming show of interest from students and teachers has drawn 600 players to 15 varsity teams.

While the rosters of these teams contain coaches and student-athletes born in the five boroughs, there are hundreds more first- and second-generation immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Guyana and the Caribbean islands, now having their first experiences representing their schools on the playing field.

The incredible success of the new league is built on the commitment of members of the United Federation of Teachers, NYSUT's affiliate in New York City schools, led by Randi Weingarten. They coach the teams and teach the student-athletes who are making the league the talk of the international sports community.

The birth of the league has been widely covered in media as disparate as The New York Times, Newsday, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, England's Telegraph newspaper and CNN's partner, the Indian Broadcast Network.

Following are some of the professional educators and dedicated students bringing this new league to life.

Carwen Dublin, Medgar Evers Prep, Brooklyn

Medgar Evers Prep is one serious high school. Housed in a building on the Medgar Evers College campus, it offers more than a dozen AP classes and gives students the chance to take college courses free. It's in Brooklyn's racially and culturally mixed Crown Heights neighborhood. It is also one of the PSAL's learning labs for cricket.

Dublin, a math teacher who has many of the players in his calculus classes, is happy to coach the game he has played since his youth.

"The recognition of cricket is good for our schools and students because this is a game many of their parents and grandparents have played," said the soft-spoken native of the Caribbean island of St. Vincent. "It's good to recognize the diversity of our population."

Asked what his student-athletes have learned this season, the first-time coach says, "camaraderie and discipline, and I see it transferred to their academic work."

His team has some young people who played in Jamaica, and other Brooklynites just learning the game.

Junior captain Omar Raymond from Jamaica remembers that before coming to America, "after school every day our community would come together and play for hours." Now when the school team practices in a neighborhood park, junior Aaron Brown says "people stop and talk to us. Some even bowl (pitch) and bat with us."

Junior Samantha Bascombe is one of a handful of girls playing in the league this year. She calls herself "brave" for playing and clearly has the respect of her teammates. Her only regret is missing some Saturday games because she is taking psychology and English courses at the college.

Christine Cavaliere, Newcomers HS, Queens

Cavaliere felt the energy of the birth of public school cricket in a few short hours.

Cavaliere, the cricket coach at Newcomers HS in Queens, hung a sign on her office door one morning, looking for interested players. By noon, she had 40 names on her sign-up sheet.

An experienced girls varsity basketball coach, the Bronx native is now leading one of the most successful cricket programs in the city. The United States Cricket Association calls her "the first female coach to ever win a cricket game in the United States."

Newcomers is the first American school for hundreds of immigrant students. "Our school is a melting pot," Cavaliere explained. We do a good job of keeping students' cultures alive while they're learning American culture."

Eighteen-year-old senior Dominic Gomes from Bangladesh is the team captain. "Like all my players, Dominic loves cricket," Cavaliere said. It's a wonderful motivational tool for him to be making his mark now as a cricket player."

Nigel Thompson, Lehman HS, Bronx

Thompson, a native of the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, knows athletic success from coaching the 2003 "B" boys' city championship basketball team at James Monroe High School. He is working hard to bring his cricket team to that same level of play.

"This is the first time these players have had the chance to represent their school in anything," Thompson said. "I go out of my way to make sure our matches and results are announced every day at school."

Most Lehman players are first- and second-generation immigrants from Bangladesh and Guyana, India and Pakistan. One of the best results Thompson sees is off the field. "They are mostly good students. Now being on a team, they have to keep an eye on their eligibility," Thompson said.

Ray Ramirez, DeWitt Clinton HS, Bronx

Ramirez remembers seeing some cricket played as a teenager when he was growing up in the heavily Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights in upper Manhattan, but he "didn't pay much attention."

Now, as head coach at DeWitt Clinton HS in the Bronx, he is putting his skills as a teacher, veteran swimming coach and youthful immigrant to use, molding a global roster into one cohesive unit. His squad includes athletes from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jamaica and a Dominican, including two students in the school's English as a Second Language program.

Despite the occasional bumps on the road of team building, Ramirez is proud of the efforts and enthusiasm of his players for a game they love.

"They feel like they belong and their families and cultures are being represented," he said about his first-time scholastic athletes. "I would love to help them grow this sport. These kids are special."

- Bernie Mulligan