Defensive End Frank Gaines, DE, 6-1, 225, City College of San Francisco, has signed to play for the University of North Texas. He is expected to be on campus for the summer semester. Gaines had offers from North Texas, Wyoming, Hawaii and Portland State.  He made official visits to Wyoming on 12-11-2009 and Hawaii on 1-22-2010.  Several Pac-10 schools were heavily on him but never offered.

Gaines played his high school at Mission Hills, Cal., after being transplated from Louisiana because of Hurricane Katrina. He was an immediate impact player when he arrived in his junior year.  In is senior season he was the opposing quarterback’s nightmare. He recorded 13 sacks and forced quarterbacks to hurry their passes. Running backs received the same welcome with 13 of them being tackled for losses. He was the key reason Mission Hills won the Valley League Football Title for the first time in their history and as a result advanced to the Division II Championship game. He was selected Defensive Player of the Year.

While he got the honor Gaines quickly reminded everyone it was not a one man show. The whole defense was the reason the won the title and to him “it meant a lot to be part of such a great defense. We had a lot of fun this year.”

From high school he had to make a trip to junior college to get his grades in order. He landed at the Community College of San Francisco as a result of his high school coaches calling the school. Once his film arrived on the desk of Defensive Coordinator, Anthony Feliciano, he immediately said “he’s a player” and signed Gaines. 

Feliciano said if Gaines was a couple of inches taller “he would a Pac-10 player.”

There were a couple of items which kept some schools off of Gaines. While the four year schools liked what they saw on film they were concerned about his height. Even with that concern some still stayed on him but could not get him into their programs, not because of grades in junior college but because he lacked the required courses to transfer to certain four year programs. Then there were those who did not what him because he was not a mid-year graduate. 

A mid-year graduate is someone who graduates in January. Four year schools like to get those players on campus for spring drills and not the summer session when a junior college player would come in with the freshmen. Even though Gaines is a two for three, two years of playing time left and three years to do it, colleges would rather have the four for five players for fall admission.

Feliciano said Gaines is “athletically the best defensive player we have on the team.” There is one thing the coach was more impressed with when talking about Gaines, “he understands football and has a nose for the ball. He knows how to read screens and can read trap blocks.” He said don’t worry about his defensive numbers being down this year.  The way CCSF used his skills this last season is what caused a drop in his numbers.

“Gaines is the best pass rusher we have” and at the next level could be a sack master. Although he is strong in the upper and lower body he still has room for improvement.

Right now Gaines needs to put on some weight and once he does he can add more strength. “He is explosive off the ball” and the enclosed link to his highlight tape shows how fast he can get to the quarterback or to the play.

Gaines played on the inside of the line in high school but Feliciano said they moved him to defensive end and he never missed a beat and started every game. While it takes most players time to learn what they were supposed to do when moved outside, Gaines quickly caught on. 

“He really is a nice guy” stated Feliciano and not a trouble maker. He understands the value of an education and has put in extra study time to get his grades to be where they need to be and is on track to graduate with and Associates Degree. Gaines has taken his studying so seriously the coach said sometimes it has affected his weight.

Because of an early loss in the season CCSF did not get to play in the state title game but did get to play in the San Francisco Community College Hawaiian Punch Bowl which was played Dec. 5 against American River College (ARC). The kickoff was at 1 P.M. and when the game was over ARC wished someone else was invited. The CCSF defense, led by Gaines, allowed a total of 135 yards on their way to a 59-0 shellacking of the opponents. Gaines had the opposing quarterback looking like a deer in headlights and not much could be said for the running backs either.

They ended their season 10-1 and had their 17^th conference championship in 20 years.

Gaines was named Nor-Cal first team all defense and All-California first team defense.