Former Merrimack teammates Zack Retey, left, and Shea Scott will be teammates not only Friday night for Team West in the annual CHaD All-Star Game, but at Saint Anselm College in the fall. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

MANCHESTER — Playing college football can be daunting enough.

But it’s great when you have a former high school teammate with you.

That’s the case for recent Merrimack High School graduates Shea Scott and Zach Retey. Both are headed to play at Saint Anselm College in the fall, and they’ll play their first game at their new home field, Grappone Stadium, on Friday night for Team West in the annual CHaD East-West All-Star Game.

“It feels great, you’re playing with all the guys you played against, but now you get to be teammates,” Scott, a running back, said.

Scott has gone to the ChaD game before, a few times, and from sitting in the stands, he said, “You want to play in it.”

“Like Shea said, it’s great to be able to play with guys you’ve played against your entire life,” Retey said. “But we’re playing for a bigger cause. We’re playing for the CHaD Hospital and everything like that. We all donated money this off-season. That’s a big part of it.

“But it’s a great opportunity to be a team for two weeks, get to know some guys you played against, just have fun.”

At Saint A’s, Scott will study health science, sharing that major with former foe and future teammate Nashua North’s Jack Krulikowski.

Besides CHaD practices – Team West’s head coach is their high school coach, Kip Jackson, which makes things easier – the pair have reported to Saint Anselm’s for off-season workouts.

“We’re both going to summer workouts right now and it’s very competitive,” Scott said. “It’s very fun, I love it.”

When Scott first saw the workout regimen, he was excited, because the workouts are mainly locals while rest of the squad is home for the summer.

“There aren’t a lot of guys that can’t make it so you’re getting that one-on-one training with the strength coach, and that helps a lot,” he said. “You do field work for the first hour, weight room work for an hour and a half after that – and then you get home and you feel great. You’re there early in the morning.”

Retey said the “competitive nature” of the workouts was what struck him.

“It’s much more intense than high school,” he said. “But you adapt to it pretty easily. And it’s all fun. We love playing football, we love having fun out there.”

And you’re doing it with a buddy from your high school team.

“I’m lucky enough to have this guy right next to me to push each other,” Retey said. “We’ve been pushing each other since we’ve started playing football.

“It’s great to have someone you can connect with on a personal level. You can both push each other and strive to get better together.”

Scott used to be a receiver at Merrimack then got moved to running back.

“I felt a certain way about it,” he said with a smile. “But after I adjusted I liked it more. I got the ball more.”

And that’s where he’ll be at Saint A’s, against bigger players, but the workouts will help. “It’s all how you prepare for it,” Scott said.

The same for Retey.

“I say just put in hard work every single day,” he said. “We’re going to have to go in with the mentality, going into camp, that nobody can mess with us, you know? Even though they might be bigger than us, we’re going to have the mentality to come in every single day, even if we get our butts kicked, to get up and keep going.”

Beginning Friday night, that’s the plan.