Skyline College Football – Undefeated since 1960
Fall brings along the season for football. It’s all everyone is talking about right now, whether it is pro football, college football, high school football, etc. Maybe around campus you haven’t heard as much about it because Skyline doesn’t have a football team.
Why don’t we? Surely we must have students who are interested in football. We also have two soccer fields, why can’t one of those be for football? None of it seems very fair.
Since its founding in 1960, Skyline College has never had a football team. Despite this, we do have other sports that College of San Mateo and even Canada College do not, like wrestling. Otherwise, we essentially have one team for all three schools in the San Mateo Community College District for some sports, football being one of them.
Some could argue that plenty of schools in the area offer football, but students still want to push for Skyline to have a football team.
“If I could wave a magic wand, I would love to have football; I would like to have more sports in general,” Skyline College Athletics Director Joe Morello said. “Realistically, do we need it? No.”
Morello says there is currently not enough substantial interest for a Skyline College football team to justify the money being spent.
“Because of the commitment and size, football is expensive, Turf alone would cost half a million dollars,” Morello said. “Then you need seating, a press box, extended bathrooms, new electrical, more team space, storage, and gear. Even if interest was there then it becomes a planning issue. We would need to hire staff, coaches, make infrastructure changes, and develop a curriculum. It’s not impossible but with football you’re looking at millions of dollars.”
To anyone not familiar with football, the amount of money needed may be shocking. Be that as it may, Skyline might be looking at other issues when it comes to forming a football team.
“It’s very difficult considering that College of San Mateo has a football team and San Francisco City College has a football team,” said Bret Pollack, head coach of the College of San Mateo football team. ”So when you look at the population Skyline draws from- the student athletes can go to College of San Mateo or San Francisco City College that have nationally ranked football teams and are in close proximity. In football you need about 100 players for a solid program. To draw 100 players just from this area when College of San Mateo or San Francisco City College can recruit from here would be hard.”
Morello agrees with this thinking.
“It’s like starting a new restaurant surrounded by strong competitors,” he said.
Not having enough players for such a large amount of money could be seen as problematic. Both athletic professionals seem to agree on this front, and even though they both work for different schools, Morello and Pollack both want CSM to succeed.
“It’s smart for the district to say what can we support and be good at,” Pollack said. “We don’t want to cannibalize each other with three teams in the district and not have any one be good. Put the money into sports at schools that will do well and be competitive. You want to fund, staff, and provide the resources so the team can compete well against other schools. You want to provide students with the opportunity to play sports but you want it to be good quality.”
“Even though I am not the Athletic Director there, I take pride in what College of San Mateo does in football because it’s a reflection on the district as a whole,” Morello said. ”I would love to have it but what I have is great too and I’m happy with it.”
Unfortunately for fans, it does not look like Skyline will be getting a football team any time soon. However, both Pollack and Morello noted that students attending Skyline can still play football for College of San Mateo if they like. A student could be full time at Skyline and would just need to sign up for the varsity football class at College of San Mateo, which is essentially football practice. The class currently takes place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:10 a.m. to 2:25 p.m. at the College of San Mateo.
If interested or if you would like more information, Joe Morello invites you to contact him by email at [email protected].
Maybe in the future Skyline will see some football on campus but for now it looks like we will still be cheering on the College of San Mateo Bulldogs.