Is Football in the future at WGTC?

West Georgia Technical College has been a member of the GCAA for only a couple of years now but with their early success in basketball and baseball, they are doing initial research into the viability of adding football.

WGTC plans to hold several open forums to discuss that possibility with the community and students. President Dr. Skip Sullivan said football has been the main topic of conversation when it comes to students sport interest.

"I think everyone that is from this area knows that there's just a ton of kids on this side of Georgia that play high school football and never had a chance to do anything else. A lot of those students happen to be students at West Georgia Tech," Sullivan said.

"We wanted to at least do some exploratory work to say, 'You know, how many are interested in it? Is the community interested in it?' So we think the right way to do it, of course, is to be slow and methodical. To understand the cost of this type of a program, which tends to be an expensive undertaking," Sullivan said. "So we're doing it this way because we think it's the right way and we certainly want to measure the interest and value in our community and the area that we serve here in west Georgia."

If the interest is there and the program is financially feasible, 2014 would be the earliest WGTC could field a football team.

"I can't see us doing anything before that. We've got to solidify some facilities and some things for our current athletic programs right now. But facilities is an issue for our current athletic structure right now," Sullivan said.

Thus far, Sullivan has been encouraged by the initial feedback he's received about adding football to the department's growing athletic department and he looks forward to hearing further comments from the community and student body at the open forums.

"We're putting those feelers out and so far we're getting a lot of response from both students and a lot of response from high school coaches and college coaches who have some interest in having a JUCO-type system in Georgia. You know, certainly a two-year college program that might be a feeder school for some of the other schools," Sullivan said.

Sullivan is happy with the current athletic program's direction under the leadership of Athletic Director Walter Dunson and the coaches leading the student-athletes.

"I'm proud of our coaches and the character they have. Certainly, the things that they work to instill in their players are something that are exemplary. I'm proud of West Georgia Tech, I'm proud of the Golden Knights and I'm proud of the job our athletic department does."