Senior high school football players raise money for Al Aska Shriner’s at annual football game

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - Every year star football players from around the state come together to show off their skills one last time, and to help the Al Aska Shriners organization raise money.

The Dome was filled with fans and athletes who would normally play against each other — but became teammates on Saturday. The players don their school helmets, but wear special Shriners jerseys that they get to keep after the game.

“I have two ultimate goals one is to take care of the players and maybe help get them into college — we have got great athletes — but the most important thing is this is our biggest charitable fundraising for the hospital and for our patient transportation fund,” Potentate for Al Aska Shriners Jack Clouse said.

Clouse said that they normally raise between $20,000 and $35,000 via donations and raffles around the game. Most of that money goes straight to child patients, or to help with travel for treatment when they have to go out of the state.

The game featured the Maroon team and the Silver team, and both of the squads had a mix of large and small school athletes. The teams got to practice and get to know each other for three days before hitting the field and hitting each other. Even though it was more of an all-star game, the atmosphere at The Dome was no shortage of big hits and aggressive play from everyone.

“Instead of doing three different games with the three different divisions, we decided it’s not the size of the school, it’s the size of the heart of the player. So the small schools can compete against the big schools but athletes are athletes regardless of what school they go to,” Clouse said.

The final score was 21-3 in favor of the Silver team — but the final score isn’t the most important thing about this game — it’s the money raised and the exposure for the young athletes.

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