Local athletes compete in Iowa Shrine Bowl

CEDAR FALLS – Graduates from local schools participated in one last high school football game on Saturday in the 2018 Iowa Shrine Bowl at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.
 
Local participants included Dike-New Hartford grad Chase Arends, AGWSR's Liam Stubbe and Gladbrook-Reinbeck's Walker Thede, with all three playing together on the North squad.
 
The South rolled to a 59-14 blowout win over the North, but the Shrine Bowl experience is about much more than Saturday's game, which the local trio experienced in the preparation for the game.
 
"It's all about the kids," Arends said of those at The Shriner's Hospital for Children, for which the Shrine Bowl is a fundraiser. "That's the whole reason we're here."
 
Prior to the 2018 game, the Shrine Bowl had already raised 2.6 million dollars for the hospital in the previous 45 iterations.
 
Patients were brought down from Minneapolis for a mini-camp on Friday that allowed for the Shrine Bowl participants to play with the kids on the UNI-Dome turf.
 
"Bringing in the little kids was just awesome," Thede said. "It opens your eyes and makes you realize that you've got it good no matter what happens."
 
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