Prep football stars savor Shrine Game experience

Posted on June 16, 2017

By Zach Zook

BLOOMINGTON – The Illinois High School Shrine Game has moved to multiple locations throughout its history, but it never misses a beat, always featuring the best high school football players in the state.

Founded in 1975 by the Bloomington Shrine Club and the Illinois Coaches Association, the Shrine Game has a deep history. For 22 years it was played at Hancock Stadium in Normal before being moved to Peoria. Just recently has the Shrine Game found its current home, moving to Illinois Wesleyan’s Tucci Stadium in 2012. However, wherever the Shrine Game has headed, its reputation has preceded it.

This year, Normal Community’s James Coleman and Dee Mack’s Jared Reese are among local selections.

“I haven’t really thought about it yet, but it means a lot,” Coleman said. “I’ve never really been recognized for the things I did at Normal Community so it feels good.”

For many players the Shrine experience is a blur, having such little time to prepare and learn a playbook but one thing is for sure; being a Shriner is validating and special to these players. For Dee Mack’s Jared Reese, this isn’t his first special football experience, helping the Chiefs to a state title last fall.

“At the state game it was a really rare experience and this is just going to be another amazing experience to have, getting to play with the best players in the state,” Reese said.

In addition to merely playing in the game, Reese will also be exploring relatively new territory. He was selected to the game as a linebacker, although he mainly played fullback throughout his high school career.

“I played a little bit of linebacker at the end of the season and I think my coach liked me there so that’s what he put me in for,” the state champion said. “It’ll be probably my last time playing defense in football so it’ll be a great time. There’s only a few of us linebackers on the team so I’ll get a lot of playing time here and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

After the game, Reese plans to continue his football career on offense at William and Penn University while Coleman will continue his playing days at Eureka College. The game will be held at Illinois Wesleyan’s Tucci Stadium in Bloomington at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Zach Zook can be reached at [email protected].

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