Gattaca Football making its presence felt

Last fall, an intriguing new entity popped up on the New Jersey college football scene. Gattaca Football, a private junior college club program whose students are enrolled at Mercer County Community College, played the first full season slate in program history. The squad, under the guidance of head coach Manuel Galarza, finished with a strong 6-3 record and is looking to expand the program in 2011.

Although its players attend classes at Mercer County CC, Gattaca Football operates completely independent of the school. MCCC is a two year school with flexible enrollment. Gattaca is not a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), but operates a lot like one of its affiliated programs and plays a schedule that includes NCAA junior varsity teams, prep schools, and NJCAA teams.

"We're not a Prep school, and we're not certified by the NJCAA," Galarza explained. "What we are is a unique club program; we've been able to attract Division-1 type kids who needed to go JUCO route."

Galarza, who has coached at ASA and Hudson Valley Community College, set the program up in 2010. In a short time, he has managed to make his program an attractive option for players looking to continue their playing careers post-high school.

"We send out an actual recruiting package to kids," Galarza explained. "In it, we compare ourselves to ASA, Lackawanna, Erie, Hudson Valley, all the major JUCO's in this area. When we go up head-to-head with those programs, the bang for your buck stands out."

A full athletic scholarship at Gattaca Football covers all the athlete's athletic tuition, which is $2,500 per year. The scholarship does not cover books, housing or tuition at MCCC.

According to Galarza, the economic factor does not stand alone in making Gattaca a viable choice for high school players.

"With us, you're talking about a school that assists in your recruiting, we help produce and disseminate highlights," Galarza said.

"That doesn't always get done at other schools. I've seen that first-hand, whether it's from lack of resources or manpower or whatever. "

People charge for recruiting services and we don't want to be looked at as charging people for that. We have an obligation to our customers and clients to get them exposure."

After a slow start to recruiting the program's inaugural off-season, Galarza said this year is different.

"Last May kicked things off, some of the recruiting I did was based on relationships (with coaches) I had built before. Things were slow, but now, not a day goes by where I don't get an e-mail about a new prospect. Word of mouth is powerful. Last recruiting cycle, we had limited time. Now, we want to build ourselves up."

Gattaca currently has 14 student-athletes signed for next season, with many more targets still in play.