If you want football, we’re going to give you football.

This Saturday night at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames will be the 39th edition of the North-South Shrine All-Star game, to once again benefit the Shrine’s great program in running children’s hospitals across the country.

I’ve checked this week with Jerry Hoffman, who is the manager of the Shrine Bowl, about the workouts of the two teams in the heat of an Iowa summer. He reported that they have not had any problems with players because of the heat, and that the workouts have been in the main without pads and without helmets. Some of the practices have been held in the Cyclones’ indoor facility, and that too has worked well.

But on Saturday evening at Jack Trice, it will be helmets, pads and action in the first football game of the upcoming season. The Metro area will be well represented on the North team with Cedar Rapids Xavier’s Chase Kleopfer, Marion’s Dusty Albaugh, Linn-Mar’s Jer Garman and Kennedy’s Ross Ellsworth.

Albaugh made the trip from Ames to Van Horne to play for the Marion Indians in the Class 3A substate baseball finals Wednesday night, then after the game returned to his football duties.  And incidentally, he’s becoming familiar with the Iowa State campus since he’ll be going there this fall.

It should be mentioned, too, that on the South squad will be Solon’s Marshall Koehn, Iowa City Regina’s Zach Pechous, City High quarterback Andrew McNulty and West Branch’s Rilen Carew. Friday night at the all-star banquet, the speaker will be well-known Iowa City Regina Coach Marv Cook, who will give the charge to the athletes for Saturday night’s game.

The head coaches are Dave Holdiman of Marshalltown for the South team and Jim Boyd of LeMars for the North. The Shriners also have a week-long camp for their all-star cheerleaders, who will perform during the game, making for a very colorful affair.

The players have been well-entertained, visiting an I-Cubs game, enjoying a hog roast and spending a day at Adventureland Park. So between the heat and the activities of the week and the honor of being in the Shrine game, it’s a busy time for the players and coaches. It’s also been a busy week for the Iowa State trainers, who have been keeping track of the heat and water supply and the health of the participants.

In closing, one of the big funding streams for this game is the annual Shrine program, in which the athlete who has been selected  goes out on his own and sells an ad about his high school career. And when it’s all said and done, the athletes are playing in the game, but they have also raised support money for the Shrine hospitals, and the same thing has been done by the cheerleaders.

That’s what makes this a great show.