Local sports writer John Gillooly has been making his rounds promoting his new book “Friday Night Thunderbolts,” in which he chronicles the 2018 Cranston High School East football team’s season.

Gillooly is an award-winning writer who covered high school sports for the Providence Journal for 50 years. He retired in 2018 and would get to work on this project just a week later. This is his second book, coming 17 years after his first book titled “Pride on the Mount,” which focused on the Mount Saint Charles hockey program.

“Friday Night Thunderbolts” gives readers an inside look at the making of the 2018 Thunderbolt team and focuses on the stories behind the coaches and players both on and off the field. Gillooly is a longtime friend of the head coach at the time, Tom Centore, and pitched the idea at the Big Cheese in Cranston the night before the first day of training camp in 2018. Centore agreed to grant Gillooly access to the team for the season and the rest was history.

Gillooly appeared at the Cranston Library at Garden City to discuss his book with the public, answer reader questions and sign copies on Saturday afternoon.

“The reality is that a lot of young student-athletes, mainly males, play high school football. Having football help pay for college is great, by in my mind high school football needs to be about a lot more than just paving the way for college scholarships. I hope that this book shows that high school football is about so much more than just getting a scholarship,” said Gillooly on why he chose to write the story.

Not only does the book discuss the team-related topics of that season, but it also dove into the lives of the players at home. Gillooly also discusses the broader topics of the team and school, including how Cranston East was the state’s most diverse school and team that season. He also dives into the impact that concussions have on the sport, and even gives some historical insight on the team, including the history of the Centore coaching family which included Tom’s father, Tony, who was a legendary coach at Johnston.

“I felt what I needed to do to write this story was by telling the backstories of some of the players, and I didn’t know what those backstories were, I hadn’t met any of them personally, I had just seen them out there and knew what was happening. Then combine those stories with how the day-to-day activities in 2018 were affecting their lives,” said Gillooly.

Gillooly said that one of the biggest things he learned through the experience was how much these players truly cared about the team and enjoyed playing the game.

“Football is the ultimate high school team sport. The basic premise of football is that on every play of every game, each of the 22 players has a specific assignment. To me, that was the ultimate challenge that high school sports has to offer,” said Gillooly. “They have fun, they really like it. I was kind of amazed that they loved it so much.”