Countdown To Kickoff:

NORTHEAST GLENDALE — Between a coaching staff rich in Vaqueros history and an expansive array of homegrown talent, the 2008 Glendale Community College football team is certainly keeping the “Community” in GCC.

While first-year Coach John Rome estimates he’s just about the only coach on his staff who didn’t once wear the Vaquero uniform, he’s got a strong background in the program, having served as offensive coordinator for the last six years under former Coach John Cicuto, who resigned following the 2007 season after 19 years at the helm.

Rome is also quick to note the amount of talent from local high schools — spanning the area that includes Glendale, Burbank, La Crescenta and La Cañada-Flintridge — that the current team will rely on in part as it seeks to navigate the Northern Conference’s National Division and return to a bowl game, a goal that it narrowly missed in 2007, going 6-4 and 5-2 in the Western State Conference Pacific Division.

“All these kids come from probably no more than a half-hour drive from here and we like it that way,” said Rome, whose squad features 24 true locals in all this year, up from 17 last season. “We want these guys home at night and we want the support of the parents.

“We want this to be a community college. ...This is our college for our kids here and we take a lot of pride in that and in being able to transfer the kind of kids that we do.”

Perhaps nowhere is the Vaqueros’ local recruiting coup as evident as it is in the backfield.

The team’s stable of running backs going into its season opener on Saturday at West L.A. College reads like an area high school all-star game roster.

2005 Burbank High graduate Jason McNeill is back after sitting out the previous season and will look to bounce back to his 2006 form, when he was named the team’s most valuable player. New to the team this year are 2008 Muir graduate Willie Youngblood and LaVelle Peterson, a 2007 graduate of La Cañada, and former All-Area standout.

Youngblood rushed for 1,280 yards and 19 touchdowns during the regular season last year as the feature back on a Mustangs team that ran the table in the Pacific League.

Peterson was Rio Hondo League co-Most Valuable Player his senior season and holds Spartans records for single-game and single-season rushing yards and rushing touchdowns.