The rosters for the 73rd Annual Montana East-West Shrine Game has been announced. The game will be played July 20, 2019 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 also the oldest, continuous running, 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 the top Shrine Game in the nation for hospital donations. In the last ten years this game has raised nearly $1,000,000. 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 Les Meyer of Fairfield. Les started his coaching career at Rocky Mountain as an assistant in 1993 and coached at St. Cloud State in Minnesota a couple years before landing in Fairfield in 1997 where he’s head coached for 22 years. During his tenure, Coach Meyer has lead his Eagles to the playoffs 17 of the last 18 years and 8 state championship games winning 3, including this year. He will have the opportunity to coach his son Ryder one last time, which will be playing for the Grizzlies this fall. Les is married to Jolyn and has two sons, Tucker and Ryder.
Heading the West Team will be Mike Cutler of Flint Creek (Drummond/Philipsburg Co-Op). Mike played college ball at Montana Western from 1988-92 and started his coaching career as assistant at Big Sky in Missoula in 1994. His coaching career has spanned 24 years with stops at Denton, Townsend and finally Flint Creek where he’s lead the Titans to back to back state championships the last 2 years. Coach Cutler played in the 1988 Shrine game and assistant coached this game two previous years. Mike is married to Jody and they have two children, Sydney and Kade. Uniquely, both coaches are superintendents of there respective schools, Fairfield and Philipsburg.
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 73rd Montana Shrine Game. They join an elite fraternity of players, many of whom have gone on to distinguished collegiate and professional careers.