Columbia, MD - The Dragons under the leadership of head coach Mike Smelkinson will take to their home court Thursday evening against Northern Virginia for the season opener of the 2022-23 campaign. 

Smelkinson, in his 11th season as a head coach and his sixth at Howard CC, has pulled together another strong squad that appears poised to compete for a regional championship after finishing as the region runner-up in 2021-22.

Howard will see their first 11 games of the regular season all played at home as the Dragons front loaded their home schedule before the demolition of the old Athletics and Fitness Center (AFC). Big Region 20 matchups at home will include Garrett on 11/16, Frederick on 11/19, Chesapeake on 11/22, and Cecil on 12/1. The final game ever played in the AFC will take place on 12/10 in what is expected to be an event with lots of excitement in a sold out extravaganza. 

The Dragons will then hit the road for the rest of the season including invitationals at Harford CC and Monroe College. The strenuous road schedule will see a stretch in mid-February with critical regional games at Montgomery, Catonsville, Potomac State, and Southern Maryland in short succession. 

The regional tournament will see the quarterfinals at the higher seed on March 7 before getting to a final four at Frederick CC on March 10 and 11.

The Howard squad sees a blend of returners, transfers, and true freshmen with plenty of talent vying for playing time. Kahleem Jennings (Severn, MD/Meade) returns to the team after last playing on the regional championship winning 2019-20 team as the senior player on the team. Other returners from last year's team includes Trea Kets, Benjamin Murphy (Reisterstown, MD/Franklin), Koby Baptiste (New Carrollton, MD/Parkdale), and Stephen Doar (Juba, South Sudan/Minnesota Prep). Howard added two strong players from Virginia State University in Ethan Wilson (Manassas, VA/Osbourn Park) and Marquis Freeman (Manassas, VA/Fork Union Prep) while also seeing strong freshman join the squad including Andrew Mills (Owings Mills, MD/Newtown) and Jalen Bowie (Federick, MD/Federick).