The 30th annual Iowa Shrine Bowl game will feature the best of the best when 90 star athletes from around the state take the field Saturday.

Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. at Jack Trice Stadium.

Each school in the state is allowed to nominate one defensive and one offensive player for the game. From all the nominations, 45 have been picked out for each squad.

Cheerleaders have also been selected.

“It’s an all-star game,” said Jerry Hoffman, general manager of the game. “They’re all premium all-star athletes. We really check them out. We want them to be good athletes, but we want them to be good citizens in their communities. It’s just a fantastic group of young men that we’ve got.”

Hoffman said the head coaches are picked during the state high school playoffs in Cedar Falls. A head coach is selected for both the north and south teams. From there, the assistants are picked so each team has assistants from every class, he said.

Hoffman said they try to get coaches from all areas of the state, because the coaches are allowed to select the athletes they need for their team from the athletes nominated.

U.S. Highway 30 is the dividing line that separates the state in half, Hoffman said.

The goal of the game is not only to showcase the football talent in Iowa, but also to raise funds for Shriners hospitals, Hoffman said.

He said there are a number of players that will attend division one schools. There is also one athlete that will attend Harvard this fall.

Jonathan Cochran, who recently graduated from West Des Moines Valley High School, is one example of the exemplary athletes Hoffman wants in the Shrine Bowl. The 6-foot-7, 301-pound lineman will major in pre-medicine this fall at Stanford.

The athletes, who have been in Ames for a week, work out with their respective teams and take in some special events, Hoffman said.

“We took them to the Iowa Cubs game,” he said. “Monday, we took them to Minneapolis to the hospital to see why we’re really having the game.”

Hoffman said the players also went to Adventureland one afternoon.

Practices and a banquet at Hilton Coliseum honoring each player will be held Friday and there will be a walk-through Saturday before the game.

Hoffman said the practices have been very productive and there’s a good feeling among the athletes.

“The teams are just getting along fantastic,” he said. “A lot of them are going to Iowa State and some of them are on the north and some of them are on the south team. When they’re on the field, they’re intense young men. There’s no holding back there.”

Ryan Kock, Beau Klaffke and Seth Zehr of the north team and Cory Wierson of the south team are all listed on ISU’s 2002 roster.

This will be the third year Ames and Iowa State have hosted the Shrine Bowl. Hoffman said he hopes it stays in Ames for a long time because of the support from Ames mayor Ted Tedesco and the rest of the community. He said Tedesco has been out to talk to the players every day that he has spare time.

“The Ames community has just bent over backwards to help us,” Hoffman said. “The bottom line is to make money for our Shriners hospitals. If we can continue to get a good showing in this community, we’ll keep it in Ames.”

A parade will also be held Saturday morning in downtown Ames, beginning at City Hall. All four of the Shrine temples in Iowa will be represented in parade units. Sitting dignitaries from Ames and the Shrine Bowl cheerleaders will also be in the parade, Hoffman said.

Rich Pingeton, the sports and leisure sales manager at the Ames Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the parade will start at 10:30 a.m.

“There’s going to be some vendors selling food and a jazz band at the park.” Pingeton said. “It should be a pretty nice deal downtown.”

He said any volunteers that wish to help with the parade are urged to call him at 515-956-4604.