It’s been a long time since Thanksgiving, when the Gloucester High School football team last took the field against an opponent in a meaningful game.

After last season’s dominant performance in the regular season, and two well fought games in the playoffs, there were many questions about how the Fishermen would fare after graduating many of their starters.

After three weeks of preseason workouts and two scrimmages the players and coaching staff are optimistic that this team can build on the success of last year, and make a deep playoff run.

“At the end of the day, the best 11 are going to play, and those best 11 are going to get the win,” said senior tackle Ryan Gabriele.

After two scrimmages, against Triton and Peabody, the Fishermen now move on to regular season play this Friday at 5:00pm at Manning Field in Lynn.

The Fishermen will take on their long time rival the Lynn Classical Rams.

Marc Smith had this to say about the upcoming game, “Overall we improved a lot from the first scrimmage to the second scrimmage in being disciplined and running our plays correctly. We’re all ready to play for real.”