Local stars compete in Shrine Bowl
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| Buffalo graduate Jace Jensen (2) tries to break away from the South defense in the Shrine Bowl Saturday in Casper. Jensen led all rushers with 84 yards. Bulletin photo by Tom Milstead. |
“The children’s hospital and the kids that were there was an amazing experience,” said Straub, who was the 2011 six-man football player of they year for Kaycee High School. “It really changed my attitude towards the game. It was all about us at first, it was the South vs. the North, but when we all got in the same building with the kids, we were all on the same team. It hit home, basically. It was a great experience.”
Straub was one of four Johnson County players, along with Buffalo High School’s Hayden Kessler, Jace Jensen and Lee Iberlin, to play in the annual all-star game Saturday at Natrona County High School. The locals represented the North team, which out-gunned its southern counterparts 34-28 in an offensive showcase. The profits from the game went to the hospital.
The players were only together for a week before the game, but Jensen, who scored the North’s first touchdown and led all rushers with 84 yards, said by the time they took the field Saturday night they were a tight-knit unit.
“It was weird at first, playing with your rivals and all that,” Jensen said. “We came together after day one and we just put together a good game.
“It was a heck of an experience. I had more fun this week than I had probably all the way through high school. This is one heck of a bunch.”
Buffalo coach Pat Lynch and Kaycee coach Dustin Sipe were assistant coaches for the North team. Both coaches said the Shrine Bowl was an excellent opportunity for them to work with their players for the last time.
“We talked before the game about how much it meant for both of us to get to be around each other again,” Sipe said of his final game with Straub, whom he coached in football and track. “It was great. It was great to get to coach him again and see him fit in well with all of these all-stars from bigger schools.”
“I thought they played pretty well,” Lynch said of the Buffalo representatives. “Hayden got a lot of playing time and Jace ran the ball a lot. Lee really surprised me and the other coaches all week long at how he played that outside linebacker position. All in all, all three kids did a great job tonight.”
Kessler had five rushes for 13 yards and one catch for seven. Iberlin recorded four solo tackles from his outside linebacker position. Straub, who played on the defensive line in the Shrine Bowl after playing linebacker at Kaycee, had to learn a new position in the week leading up to the game.
“I hadn’t been in a three-point stance in two years,” Straub said.
“We switched him because coming out of six-man, making reads as linebacker against an 11-man offense would be tough for someone who hasn’t done it a lot,” Sipe said.
Kessler said playing with Jensen and Iberlin in the contest will be one of his most fond memories of his time as a Bison.
“This is what we worked our whole high school careers for,” he said. “To end it like this is, I can’t put that into words.
“It was awesome. We spent the whole week together and to get to play with Lee and Jace one more time meant the world to me and I know it meant just as much to them.”
Iberlin said he’ll remember the whole week, from visiting the hospital, to the time with his Buffalo teammates, to bonding with a bunch of guys there were strangers two weeks ago as a great experience.
“Visiting those kids in the hospital was definitely an eye-opening experience that I’ll never forget in my life,” he said.
Story by Tom Milstead, tom@buffalobulletin.com.
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