FOOTBALL-REVIVAL BACKERS TO RALLY AT LOCAL COLLEGE.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Daily News Staff Writer

Boosters bent on bringing football back to College of the Canyons will announce major contributions today.

The announcements will come at a 3 p.m. rally in the college's Cougar Stadium, rally organizer Mike Lyons said Friday.

``I think we'll have some good news,'' Lyons said.

The public is invited to the two-hour rally to bolster enthusiasm for the 1998 return of football and celebrate plans to establish a women's soccer team at the Valencia college.

The college board eliminated COC's football program after the 1981 season to save money. Restoring the program will cost an estimated $400,000.

The College of the Canyons Foundation, a private fund-raising organization for COC, will contribute $1 for every $2 that the private sector raises toward a goal of $200,000.

The rally will kick off the effort to secure community support for the two sports. The program will feature free food, games, prizes. Musicians will perform, and sports celebrities will appear.

Former players and coaches for the college have been invited for what one organizer said is the first college homecoming since 1981.

``This whole effort is critical to the creation of a quality football team and the expansion into soccer at College of the Canyons,'' said Greg Kincaid, a foundation member and chairman of the sports expansion program.

``We intend to field a winning set of teams - not just field a team,'' he said.

While there has long been a drive to return football, organizers were surprised by the popularity of a plan to establish a women's soccer team, Lyons said. To meet federal requirements for gender equity in school sports, college officials must add women's athletic opportunities if they reinstitute football for men.

``My initial thing was football,'' Lyons said, ``but we're finding that women's soccer will be just as big as football, if not bigger.''