MSU President's Column for Traill County Tribune

June 23, 2018 

Mayville State to host Shrine Bowl athletes and coaches in July

For the seventh year in a row, Mayville State University will host the North Dakota Shrine Bowl players and coaches during their week of training prior to this year’s 9-man and 11-man games. The Shrine Bowl will be held at Shanley High School in Fargo on Saturday, July 14. The North Dakota Shrine Bowl is sponsored by the Kem and El Zagal Temples of Grand Forks and Fargo, N.D. Participating players and coaches are selected by the North Dakota High School Coaches Association.

The 132 members of the East and West 9-man and 11-man teams and their 16 coaches will practice at the Mayville State. Accommodations will be provided in Mayville State residence halls and dining services. Shrine game players and coaches will arrive at Mayville State about noon Monday, July 9 and check out the morning of July 14.

In addition to the regular practice schedule, a few special activities are planned for the football players. On Tuesday evening, July 10, they will be treated to a private showing at Mayville’s Delchar Theater. Thursday is Patient Ambassador Day/ Press Day. Individual and team photos will be taken, and the Shriners will be giving a hospital presentation for the players. There will be a dinner outing for the Shrine Bowl participants at Mayville’s Island Park Thursday evening. Friday, it’s back to “business as usual” with practices in the morning and afternoon. Mayville State will provide entertainment Friday evening.

Players and coaches will check out of the Mayville State residence halls Saturday morning and proceed to the Holiday Inn in Fargo for the annual banquet which begins at 10:30 a.m. The 11-man game will begin at 4:00 p.m., followed by the 9-man game at 7:00 p.m. The games are open to the public and tickets can be purchased at Shanley on game day.

This marks the 44th annual North Dakota Shrine Bowl. Teams are made up mostly of athletes from North Dakota and a few from northwest Minnesota, areas included in the Kem and El Zagal territories. The 16 coaches are all members in good standing with the North Dakota High School Coaches Association. Selections were based on the coaches’ respective 2017 seasons.

We’re thrilled to be hosting all of the players and coaches, and especially pleased that some of the players who will be participating in the Shrine game will also join the Mayville State family as new students next fall. In addition, four of the coaches are Mayville State graduates. Sandy Laxdal, a 1991 Mayville State graduate, and Adam Sola, a 2007 MSU graduate, are assistant coaches on the 9-man East team. Cory Davis, a 2000 Mayville State graduate, and Mike Zier, a 1998 Mayville State graduate, are assistant coaches on the 9-man West team.

For more information about the North Dakota Shrine Bowl, go to NDShrineBowl.com. Shriners International is a fraternity based on fun, fellowship, and the Masonic principles of brotherly love, truth, and relief. Their philanthropic efforts are committed to the Shriners Hospitals for Children. The hospitals are changing lives every day through innovative pediatric specialty care, world-class research, and outstanding medical education. The 22 Shriners hospitals focus on four specialized areas of care: orthopedic care, burn care, spinal cord injury, and cleft lip and palate care.

There are 194 Shrine temples across the United States, Canada, Germany, Mexico, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and the Republic of Panama, with approximately 325,000 members. The Shriners support 22 hospitals for children, 18 orthopedic hospitals, three burn hospitals, and one hospital that provides orthopedic, burn, and spinal cord injury care. All care provided at Shriners hospitals is totally without charge to the patient and family. More than 1,000,000 children have been helped to date.

We look forward to having the 2018 Shrine Bowl athletes and their coaches on our campus. I invite you to come over to campus and watch practices between July 9 and 13 to get a preview to the Shrine Bowl 2018.