BLOOMINGTON -- The Illinois Coaches Association and the Shriners of Illinois will host the 44th annual Illinois High School Shrine Game on Saturday, June 16 at Tucci Stadium on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University. Kickoff is scheduled for at 1:00 p.m. The pregame festivities will begin with a Walk for LOVE event held at the stadium starting at 9 a.m.
Eighty-eight of the state’s best football players will participate in the all-star game to raise money for Shriners Hospital for Children, the official philanthropy of Shriners International. Local athletes participating on the East team include Gabe Fulton (Newton, Olney Central College), Brian Hallam (Maroa Forsyth, Southern Illinois University), Diondre Lewis (Warrensburg-Latham, Millikin University), Trevor Webb (Argenta-Oreana), Kayden Wright (Taylorville, Western Illinois University), Noah Zimmerman (Monticello, Indiana University) and Marcus Zimmerman (Vandalia, McKendree University).
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Newton coach Jason Fulton will serve as the East teams' head coach and MacArthur's Derek Spates will be an assistant coach.
Each year at the Shrine Game, two patients from the Shiners Hospital for Children are chosen to be the prince and princess. The princess is Ava Diehl from O’Fallon who is a patient at the Shriners Hospital in St Louis. The prince is Zack Strand from Bourbonnais who is a patient at the Shriners Hospital in Chicago. The prince and princess are honorary representatives from each hospital that will benefit from the money raised through the game. Last year’s event raised nearly $10,000 that went directly to providing outstanding medical care for children at the Shriners Hospitals for Children.
The featured banquet speaker will be Hayden Schaumburg from Watseka. Hayden suffered a spinal cord injury while playing football in high school and was a patient at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Chicago for his rehabilitation.
The estimated direct economic impact of hosting the Illinois High School Shrine Game in Bloomington-Normal is $92,600. For more information about scheduled events, along with rosters for both the East and West teams, can be found at ilshrinegame.com.