MSU President's Column for Traill County Tribune
July 6, 2019
Mayville State to host Shrine Bowl athletes and coaches
For the eighth year in a row, Mayville State University will host the North Dakota Shrine Bowl players and coaches during their week of training prior to the 9-man and 11-man games. The Shrine Bowl will be held at Cushman Field in Grand Forks on Saturday, July 13. 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 Tuesday, July 9 and check out the morning of July 13.
In addition to the regular practice schedule, a few special activities are planned for the football players. On Thursday evening, July 11, they will be enjoy dinner at the Mayville armory and then be treated to a private showing at Mayville’s Delchar Theater. Thursday is also Patient Ambassador Day/ Press Day. Individual and team photos will be taken, and the Shriners will be giving a hospital presentation for the players. 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 Alerus Center in Grand Forks for the annual banquet which begins at 10:30 a.m. The 11-man game will begin at 4:00 p.m. at Cushman Field, followed by the 9-man game at 7:00 p.m. The games are open to the public and tickets can be purchased at Cushman Field on game day. Television coverage will be provided by BEK TV.
This marks the 46th annual North Dakota Shrine Bowl. Teams are made up 120 athletes from North Dakota and 12 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 2018 seasons.
We’re thrilled to be hosting all of the players and coaches, and especially pleased that two of the Shrine Bowl coaches are Mayville State alumni. Brady Schwab from Thompson, N.D., a 2001 MSU graduate, is head coach for the 9-man west team, while and Sandy Laxdal from Cavalier, N.D., a 1991 Mayville State graduate, is an assistant 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 2019 Shrine Bowl athletes and their coaches on our campus. I invite you to come over to campus and watch practices between July 9 and 12 to get a preview to the Shrine Bowl 2019. These student athletes are important to us and we’d love to see them become a part of our Mayville State family. Please give them the warm welcome we all have received.