The 65th annual Shrine maple Sugar Bowl game will feature local talented football players and coaches .
Plans for the 65th Annual Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl are well underway and the Board of Governors is pleased to announce the 2018 head coaches and players. Greg Balch, Head Coach for the Windsor High School Football Team, will lead the Vermont team and Patrick Riberdy, Head Football Coach at Winnisquam Regional High School, will coach the New Hampshire team.
Coach Balch is a graduate of Windsor High School (1992) and Castleton University (1995) and earned his MBA from Plymouth University in 1999. He works in a business management role for FUJIFILM Dimatix, Inc. in Lebanon, NH. He coached junior high football at Windsor from 2008-2012 until taking over the Varsity program in 2013. He lives in Hartland, VT and is married with four children.
Coach Balch stated, “I grew up in awe of the Shrine game in respect to the quality of play and the significance of the game.” He said it was an exciting moment for his entire family when his nephew (Jeffrey Danyew) participated in 2008. He states that he had witnessed firsthand the excitement and the sense of pride and teamwork that this game can fuel.
Coach Balch added, “I am truly honored to be selected to coach this game in 2018. I look forward to stressing the significance of the game and the power of coming together for a good cause. We can make a big difference in a short period of time with focus, determination, and teamwork.” He goes on further to say that he enters the role as coach with a sense of great pride and responsibility and looks forward to being part of a Vermont team and a community that supports the great purpose of the Shriner’s.
Approximately 200 players from Vermont and New Hampshire have been nominated by their respective head coaches. The screening committees, chaired by the two head coaches have selected these local players among the teams.
Vermont players:
Windsor: Seth Balch, DB/QB. Ben Meagher, DE/OL. Dakota Page, DB/WR. Jake Tucker, LB/RB.
Bellows Falls: Shane Clark, DB/RB. Logan Cota, DB/WR/QB. Jared Zobkiw, DT/OL.
New Hampshire players:
Fall Mountain:Chris Bashaw, LB.
Stevens: Aidan Cahill, OL., Nick Stone, OL.
With a little over 6 months before game day, the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl continues to actively focus on fundraising for the world’s greatest philanthropy, that of supporting children in need at our Shrine hospitals. The game contributes to three hospitals in our area; Shriners orthopedic hospitals in Springfield, MA, Montreal Quebec in Canada and our world-renowned Burns Hospital in Boston, MA.
The Shrine Game has raised thousands of dollars over the past 64-years for the support of Shrine Hospitals and is sponsored by the Cairo Shriner Center in Rutland, VT and the Mt. Sinai Shriner Center in Montpelier, VT. The Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl Board of Governors is extremely pleased to have such talented, dedicated and self-motivated individuals as the two 2017 head coaches.
The two teams will meet with their respective coaches this Sunday, March 11 at 10 a.m. at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon to review game plans and to introduce these outstanding athletes. The summer classic is schedule to be played Saturday, August 4, 2018 on Spartan Field at Castleton University, Castleton, VT at 5:30 p.m. The pageantry of the parade for the game will be starting at 3:30 p.m.
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