Four local athletes chosen for Shrine Game

Four local football players have been selected to play in the 70th annual East-West Shrine game in Butte this summer. Brad Brazill and Patrick BigSam of Arlee were both selected, as was Michael Delaney of Charlo. Brazill and BigSam both competed in the Class C Eight-man state championship game. Delaney helped lead the Vikings to the second round of the playoffs, where they lost to Fairview. The fourth player to be selected was Polson’s Hudson Smith, who was chosen as an alternate.

The game will be played July 16, 2016 in Butte, MT. The Montana Shrine Game is the premier all-star game in Montana and has a long history of distinguished players and coaches. It is one of the oldest high school all-star football games in the United States. Every year since 1947, Montana high schools’ finest players are selected to compete in a game to raise money and to help make the public aware of the expert orthopedic and burn care available at the Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Spokane, Washington. In recent years, the Montana game has become one of the top Shrine Games in the nation for hospital donations. The Montana Shrine Game has raised over $400,000 in the last six years. For the third year this game again with have an international flavor. Forty of Montana’s finest are selected to compete on each team and two players from Calgary will join them, one for the East and one for the West.

The East Team will be coached by Mike Ludwig from the Laurel Locomotives. Coach Ludwig has been with the Laurel program since 1993 and head coach since 2002 and has been a perennial playoff team in Class A, winning the championship in 2002. Prior to returning to his home town, Mike assistant coached at Butte Central from 1993 to 1997. This is Ludwig’s first opportunity to be at the helm of the East team after assistant coaching the game twice. Mike will have the chance to coach his son, Connor, an all-state safety who was unanimously selected for the game.

Heading the West Team will be Chad Ross from the state champion Whitefish Bulldogs. Coach Ross has been with the Whitefish program for seventeen years and as head coach for the last seven, leading the Bulldogs to their first gridiron title since 1979. Chad played his college football at University of Arizona from 1990 to 1994 helping his team to a Pac-10 championship and a Fiesta bowl will over Miami in 1994.

These players were nominated by their schools and coaches across the state, and finally selected as the “best of the best” to participate in the 70th Montana Shrine Game. They join an elite fraternity of players, many of whom have gone on to distinguished collegiate and professional careers.