Custom Template

Is there a way to make a custom template available in the Template Selection section upon creation of a new site?  I have to create quite a few departmental sites under the parent site and I want all of them to have the same look and feel - I want to be able to do this upon creation of the site, without having to change the master page settings after site has been created.  Any assistance, as always, is greatly appreciated.

 I figured it out.  I will create a blog on how to add it to the template gallery and to Central Admin (for site collection creation) and will post the link to the blog.

Irina: Well you could create a site definition, but you can also specify which templates are avaiable to sub sites in the root settings under the "look and feel" column.