Recently, a couple of young men from right here in Suffolk have been blowing up the pro sports world, and we are all here for it.

Former King’s Fork High School football standout Chuck Clark is in the starting lineup for this Sunday’s game pitting his team, the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, against the Cincinnati Bengals. And former Nansemond River High School star Brandon Lowe is hitting lots of homers in Major League Baseball and recently notched his first postseason home run for the Tampa Bay Rays.

These two are making us here in the hometown proud, and we can’t wait to see more of them on our sports page.

Clark, who plays safety, has mostly been a reserve in his three years in the league. But last season, he got a couple of chances to start due to injury to teammates, and he helped the Ravens finish as the No. 1 defense in the NFL.

This weekend, he’ll get to start again thanks to another injury, and not only that, but also he will be the play-caller on the field. He seems confident and prepared based on his comments to media covering the Ravens.

“I feel really prepared,” he said. “I feel comfortable stepping in and leading this defense.”

Over in the MLB American League, Brandon Lowe is tearing up the diamond. In the third game of the American League Divisional Series, Lowe hit his first postseason home run, a much-needed breakthrough after he went 1-10 at the plate for the series before hitting the homer.

The Rays kept the Astros at bay in the series with their impressive game Monday night, which was sparked at a crucial point by Lowe’s homer.

“It felt great to go out there and make something like that happen,” Lowe said to the media afterward. “It was a great atmosphere out there, and the crowd was big for us.”

At least as long as Clark and Lowe are doing well in the majors, we hope all Suffolk residents can bring themselves to cheer for them, even if they’re not cheering for the Ravens or the Rays.