Photo by Travis Pratt From left, St. Mary's A unified partner Marc Rinaldo captures the flag of Special Olympic Athlete Ryan Hardy, of the Lower Shore team, during play at Mount St. Mary's University on Saturday.

They weren't cheering for the NFL team, but the Baltimore County Ravens A team that was facing a team from Allegany County in a Special Olympics flag football game being played on a muddy field at Mount St. Mary's University.

Flag football has been a Special Olympic sport for 11 years, but this is the first time it has been an official Maryland Special Olympic sport. Ninety players on seven teams participated in 12 games on two fields as part of the Maryland Special Olympics Fall Sports Festival being held that day.

Distance racing, soccer, tennis and powerlifting were also being held at the Mount as part of the Festival.

But football was the new thing. Until this year it was held in other states, but never Maryland.

"We started it this year because we had enough athletes that wanted to play flag football," said Jason Schriml, the vice president of sports and competition for the state Special Olympics. "The real push came from Allegany County. They asked us to bring it into the state level. We felt it was time to pull the trigger."

That was early in the year. They got the word out and soon seven teams were organized.

There were two teams from St. Mary's County and Baltimore County (Ravens A and B), and one each from Allegany, Howard and the Lower Shore.

Allegany actually started a team last year and has played about eight games this year, taking on any team it could find from youth league to high school.

"Back home it's a big thing, we play in a big stadium with an announcer and lights," said Allegany coach Keith Roach. "It's something the athletes wanted to do because of their love of the game. We just teach the basics with about eight plays and we tweak some of them. Most understand what is going on."

"It's fun and it's not hard to learn," said 29-year-old Travis Jones, one of the Allegany players. He played softball and basketball before. "I didn't think I would play football. I heard about tryouts and just showed up and made the team."

Baltimore County had planned to have just one team this year, but had to go to change its plans.

"We just got an influx of extra athletes," said Michele Taltys, coach of one of the Baltimore County teams. "We thought we would get about 10 athletes and a lot more came out."

So they split the team into Ravens A and B teams.

Schriml said he was hoping about 120 athletes would come out for football around the state, about 30 more than actually did.

His biggest surprise was that many former soccer and weightlifters, who had gotten out of Special Olympics, joined football teams.

"They came out of retirement," he said.

What about football attracted the players?

"It gives them a chance to identify with football players from the Terrapins, Ravens, Redskins and Steelers that they watch on television," Schriml said. "Now they know they can not only watch football, but now they can play it."

"It gives them an opportunity to participate in something they see on a daily basis," said Tommy George, sports director for Maryland Special Olympics. "It's an opportunity they didn't have before."

THE SPECIAL OLYMPICS TEAMS follow most of the flag football rules with a few exceptions that were put in for safety reasons. Each team has five players on the field during a game which is split into two 20-minute halves. The players wear belts with three flags attached to them. There is no blocking (although at times the players will get in each other's way) or placekicking.

The teams play on a field that is 60 yards long and 25 yards wide. which is smaller than the regular flag football field. People at Mount St. Mary's set up the two fields. Because of recent rains, there was a lot of mud.

Special Olympics officials say it is a safe sport, although on Saturday one player was hurt, placed on a stretcher and put into an ambulance.

The teams are also split into divisions. The traditional divisions just involve Special Olympic players. The unified division is the highest and has a mixture of Special Olympians and non-Special Olympians on each team. There seems to be more passing in the unified division.

Most of the players are men, but there are a few women.

This year for the first time there will be flag football games at National Special Olympics in Lincoln, Neb., in July. Maryland officials haven't decided if the state will field a team.

Frederick County has no team this year, but Schriml hopes that changes.

"We attempted to get a team from Frederick , but there was not enough time to recruit new athletes," said Schriml, who lives in Frederick . "There will be one next year."