Six seasons without a Super Bowl championship is hardly a drought in Massachusetts high school football.
However, in the football-crazed city of Gloucester, where expectations are perennially high for the beloved Fishermen of Gloucester High School, six seasons feels like an eternity.
Not since 2000 had the Fishermen tasted a Super Bowl victory and claimed Eastern Mass. supremacy in their respective division. But this year's Gloucester squad decided back in late August that they would not allow another year to be added to the hiatus from a championship.
In fact, the Fishermen raised the expectations even higher than those formed by the citizens on Cape Ann.
"We all said from the start that we wanted to go 13-0 and nothing less," said senior captain Adam Quinn last Saturday.
Of course, setting a goal to go unbeaten and win a championship is a common practice for high school football teams across the country. Actually following through with that promise is a completely different animal. It's a goal that takes a very special group of players and coaches that comes around very rarely at most schools.
Well, the 2007 Gloucester football team will indeed be classified as special.
That much was emphatically proven true last Saturday, when the Fishermen trounced Patriot League champion Hingham, 41-0, to capture the Division 2A Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro. The victory completed one of the greatest Super Bowl championship runs in the school's rich football history.
Making good on Quinn's goal, Gloucester finished 13-0, setting a school-record for most wins in a season. It was also just the second time in school history (2000) that the Fishermen went unbeaten and won the Super Bowl.
The numbers get even more impressive.
Gloucester outscored its playoff opponents by a count of 80-0, thanks to a 39-0 blowout win over Masconomet in the semifinals. That kind of domination in two playoff games had been unprecedented in the Eastern Mass. playoffs.
The Fishermen averaged 37.6 points per game, while surrendering just 8.7 points per game. The only time that the team trailed in the second half this year was against Lynn Classical on Oct. 26., as Gloucester battled back from a 22-6 fourth quarter deficit to win 26-22 and in the process registered the trademark comeback victory that all great teams seemingly have en route to a title.
"To win 13 games in a row like this is an unbelievably hard thing to do," said Gloucester head coach Paul Ingram after last Saturday's victory in bitterly cold 25-degree weather. "The kids wanted this and you could tell they were dead serious in getting it. They weren't intimidated by anything."
When asked where this year's team ranks among the school's greatest ever, Ingram wanted to leave that decision to someone else.
"We've had some great teams and some great players, and I like them all equally," said Ingram. "I'll let somebody else rank them."
One thing is certain.
The 2007 Gloucester Fishermen allowed us to witness a truly brilliant and magical championship run. It will be difficult to ever top what they accomplished.
