Green Street Academy in West Baltimore has never had a home-field advantage.

The school, founded in 2010, travels to other parts of the city for its middle and high school sports teams to play. And the lack of a home for its teams has made it “really difficult to develop school pride, school culture and a fan base,” said Jason Leonard, the school’s athletic director.

Now there’s a walking path leading to its own field of dreams.

The Baltimore Ravens Boys & Girls Club at the Hilton Recreation Center, which sat dormant next to Green Street for a decade, will now include a fully lit, multipurpose turf field for the school and others, plus a gymnasium designed and funded by Under Armour inside.

A ribbon-cutting scheduled for Monday will celebrate the renovated center on Phelps Lane, now equipped with tutoring spaces, lounge areas, a game room, and podcasting and dance studios. Working with community partners, the center, which sits between the Allendale and Carroll South Hilton neighborhoods, will eventually offer expanded programming, including for music and cheerleading.

As kids enter the club, the goal is to make them feel part of the “Flock,” with purple Ravens branding as a nod to the NFL team’s multimillion-dollar donation that helped fund the center’s revamp.

Natural light floods the center’s walkways, including one to the gym where Steph Curry has already blessed the court with a workout, according to staff members. Banners of Green Street Academy athletes adorn the gymnasium walls.

Leonard, the athletic director, said the school will “be able to see the community come out and do positive things on a Friday night.”

And its natural light is by design to “make sure kids get what they deserve, which is a bright and happy space,” said Jeff Breslin, president and CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Metropolitan Baltimore. Breslin added that, although recreation centers and Boys & Girls Clubs across the country operate differently, the community, school and staff have found a balance in making it a community asset.

Pamela Green, president of the Carroll Improvement Association, said she’s ready to see kids in West Baltimore have an opportunity to level up and have more ownership in pursuing their interests and enhancing their skills.

“If everybody is onboard and our goal is to make a difference in these young kids’ lives, then it’s going to be awesome,” Green said.

Green remembered when older residents wallowed in their cherished but sore memories of the Hilton Recreation Center.

That’s in part because the center was closed for more than 10 years before former Ravens player Torrey Smith, his wife, Chanel, and their nonprofit, LEVEL82, came in 2020, bringing mental health services, academic aid and other enrichment activities.

Two years ago, the Ravens and the Stephen and Renee Bisciotti Foundation donated $20 million to put a Boys & Girls Club in the center’s footprint.

Green said she believes it’s also important that the club continue to have options for kids who aren’t heavily into sports. Green has two children at Green Street Academy and one at Western High School who are all expected to use the club.

Ashley Hill, the club’s director, is excited to work with partners to fill the gaps in programming. She’d like to find more opportunities to expand kids’ access to classes in art and literacy. In her perfect world, she said, teens at the club would be trained to guide and mentor the younger kiddos with reading.

Green said she appreciates the thorough process it took to get to the grand opening, specifically that there was a willingness to let different ideas and people come to the table.

“We have to get back to that old adage, ‘It’s going to take a village.’” Green said.

The club will have open houses and orientations throughout October, with an expectation it will be fully open for consistent flows of kids and programming by late fall.

In the meantime, Green Street Academy is set to play its first Friday night home games this week involving the girls flag football and varsity boys football teams.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Leonard said.