Baltimore is home to baseball’s Baltimore Orioles and football’s 2001 Super Bowl champs, the Ravens, as well as the Major Indoor Soccer League’s Blast and the Baltimore Bayhawks, a professional outdoor lacrosse team. Washington boasts the Redskins (football), Capitals (ice hockey), Wizards (NBA), Mystics (WNBA), D.C. United (outdoor soccer) and the Washington Nationals (baseball).
Three nearby minor-league baseball teams, the Bowie Baysox, Frederick Keys and Aberdeen IronBirds serve as farm teams for the Orioles.

SCHOOLS

Among local colleges and universities, Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland are national powers in lacrosse, and Navy and Maryland play top- rated football schedules.
Howard Community College fields highly respected teams at the NJCAA Division III level.
At the high school level, Howard County has produced state champions in 18 sports. Mt. Hebron’s girls lacrosse team has been ranked No. 1 in the nation the past several years.
Several local athletes have gone on to the Olympics and professional teams in the United States
and abroad.

YOUTH?LEAGUES

Many of these athletes got their starts in parent-run programs such as the Soccer Association of Columbia/Howard County (SAC), which annually has more than 6,000 children competing on neighborhood and traveling soccer teams. SAC opened its own soccer complex, Northrop Fields at Covenant Park, in 2004. For information, call 410-203-9590 or visit - www.sac hc.com.
Swim teams are also a popular activity for Howard County youth. The Columbia Association’s neighborhood swim league has dozens of teams, and the Howard County swim clubs compete in the Central Maryland Swim League.
Many clubs and organizations offer baseball, tennis, softball, basketball, gymnastics, wrestling, rugby, cross-country, ice hockey, figure skating, track and field, volleyball, football, cheerleading, and boys and girls lacrosse.

ADULT?LEAGUES

For adults, the competition can be as serious as the athlete, and the variety of sports is quite broad: golf, squash, racquetball, tennis, table tennis, bowling, volleyball, basketball, softball, baseball, rugby and even disc golf.

STRIDERS

For runners of all ages, the Howard County Striders organize weekly races of two miles to 15 kilometers. The group hosts one of the nation’s largest women-only races each summer. Call 410-964-1998, or visit www.striders.net.

TRIATHLON

The Columbia Triathlon, held in late May, is one of the country’s best three-sport competitive challenges and features a 1.5K swim, a 41K bike ride and a 10K run at Centennial Park. In August the county will host its first Iron Girl Women’s Triathlon. Visit www.tricolumbia.org. ?