By PHIL ANASTASIA, Courier-Post Staff
Saturday, September 22 will be a special day for the Gloucester High School football team, and for the entire town.
Not only will the Lions play their home opener that morning against Penns Grove.
The school also will retire the jersey of former star linebacker Marc Ryan, a Marine who was killed in Iraq in November, 2004.
"He embodied the very best of high school athletics," Gloucester athletic director and football coach Leon Harris said.
Harris said the school plans a reception at 10:30 a.m., at which time a framed replica of Ryan's No. 19 jersey will be unveiled in the foyer of the Lions' new gymnasium.
At halftime of the 11 a.m. game, another framed replica of Ryan's jersey will be presented to his family and friends.
Harris is expecting that many of Ryan's former teammates will attend the event.
"This means a lot, not only to the school but to the alumni and the entire town," Harris said.
Ryan was an All-South Jersey linebacker in 1997.
"The town and Marc's friends have done a great job of keeping his memory alive," Harris said. "The kids playing today, they know about him. They know who he was and what he stood for."
