The other professional sports

Yes, the Sacramento Kings are the highest-profile professional sports team in town. But even though the franchise recently bolstered its roster with new signings Rajon Rondo, Marco Belinelli and Kosta Koufos, there's still a lot of work to do. And until the NBA season starts, we've got a bunch of other local athletes and sports teams we can cheer on in the meantime.

For example, there's opportunity to watch high-level athletes play rugby, soccer baseball and more—all in just the next few weeks.

World Team Tennis (a four-person, coed game of tennis) returned to the Sacramento area with the California Dream starting its inaugural season this week. (Last year, the Sacramento Capitals moved to Las Vegas after 28 years in town, and six championships.)The Dream will play homegames at the Sunrise Mall, and the team features the Bryan brothers—arguably the best doubles players ever—among others. Check out the team's full schedule, which includes four home games this week, at www.californiadreamtennis.com.

The Sacramento Republic FC played its first game under new head coach Paul Buckle on Tuesday (a “friendly” against the English Premier League team Sunderland), after former head coach Predrag “Preki” Radosavljevic left to take a job in the United Kingdom last week. This Saturday, July 18, it'll play against another (even better) EPL team in Newcastle United. Resale tickets are available at www.sacrepublicfc.com.

Eppie’s Great Race (www.eppiesgreatrace.org) is a fun sports event for both spectators and participants. Billed as the “World's Oldest Triathlon,” it starts at 8 a.m. on Saturday, July 18, and takes anywhere between two and four hours to complete.

Still not enough sports? Check out Sacramento River Cats (www.rivercats.com), who start a four-game home stand against the El Paso Chihuahuas on Monday, July 20. Or, just wait a week for a doubleheader of international rugby matches at Bonney Field on Friday, July 24, as part of the Pacific Nations Cup tournament (http://usarugby.org/tickets).