Feeling downcast about the Redskins, whose mediocrity becomes more clear with every game? Tired of watching the Baltimore Ravens get whomped by bad teams? Sick of seeing the Maryland Terps fumble away victories?

Allow me to suggest an elixir that will lift your pigskin blues and start your holidays with a smile.

Take yourself up to Baltimore on Saturday to see the Ridge Road Titans battle the Belair Terps for the 2007 Maryland Youth Football Championship.

Good news: The game will be at the M&T Bank Stadium where the Ravens play. Bad news: Kickoff is 8 a.m.

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Small detail: The Ridge Road Titans are under 8 years old. But they are making history.

“We are the first D.C. team to make the state championship game,” says Titans coach Sonny Hicks. “We beat the Forrestville Boys and Girls Club team at Navy Stadium. Now we’re headed for the big game.”

The sun has set Wednesday evening before the game. Christmas lights are flickering in the hilltop neighborhoods behind the Ridge Road Recreation Center, the temperature is plummeting, the Titans are groaning.

“Get those legs up!” Sylvester Cooper yells. He stands over one player. He’s lying on his back, clad in the Titans’ green jersey and black helmet, little legs doing scissors. “Higher! Faster!”

Cooper was standing over his son, Matthew.

The Ridge Road Titans are a success story about fathers and sons. Courtesy pic.

The Ridge Road Titans are a success story about fathers and sons. We hear so much about teenagers gone bad because their fathers are absent. The Titans — and the entire Ridge Road Youth Program — is an example of middle-class Washingtonians working as a village to raise their children, some of whom come from the tough streets of Benning Terrace.

“We become father figures for many of these boys,” says Athletic Director Steve Fitchett. “We try to get inside their heads a bit. We visit their schools. We tell them that education is more important than sports.”

But sports are what can bind communities, serve as a balm between warring crews, keep young kids on the playing field rather than on the street corners. Ask Coach Hicks. He grew up down the street, went to college in California, returned to work with kids.

“Coming up in this community, I stayed off the streets thanks to sports,” he tells me. “The rec center kept me straight.”

Ridge Road soaks up the energy of nearly 300 kids, on its fields and courts across the road from Fort Dupont Park. They play soccer and baseball, football and lacrosse. Despite success, the center and the facilities cry out for renovation. The Titans practice on a baseball diamond. The squat, brick building is crumbling.

Thieves broke into the rec center Thanksgiving Day and made off with $4,000 in football equipment.

“We were stunned,” Fitchett tells me. “There was no crying — we had a game the next day, so we made do.”

The Titans in action at a recent game. Courtesy pic.

If you can’t make Saturday’s championship game, consider donating cash or equipment to the Titans. You can contact Fitchett on the Web site: www.ridgeroadtitans.com.

Stay tuned for game results in my Tuesday column.

Harry Jaffe has been covering the Washington area since 1985. E-mail him at hjaffe@washingtonian.com.