LEWISTON — No matter where the game is played, Houlton football coach and athletic director Jon Solomon is glad to be part of the Lobster Bowl experience.

“For the last several years, we have been the furthest northern Maine team in the state (to play in the Lobster Bowl),” said Solomon, who will be an assistant for the East squad this year. “Actually, last year was my first time coaching the Lobster Bowl. My son (Caleb) played in the Lobster Bowl last year. It was an honor to be part of it last year.

“It is great opportunity to raise money for a great cause. The brotherhood that you are able to build with the kids within that week, and you see by Tuesday, Wednesday, they act like they have known each other for years.”

This year’s Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic will be held at Lewiston High’s Don Roux Field on July 15.

Oxford Hills coach Mark Soehren, right, makes the rounds during the Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic meeting at the Kora Shrine Center in Lewiston on Sunday. Tony Blasi/Sun Journal

The players and cheerleaders selected for the annual all-star game met Sunday at the Kora Shrine Center to learn about the fundraising they’ll do leading up to the game, and hear from some of the people who have been helped by the Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Winthrop running back and linebacker Dominic Trott said playing in the Lobster Bowl has been a long-term goal. He’s also looking forward to helping the Shriners Hospitals.

“It has been a dream of mine for these last few years,” Trott said. “I saw a few of my friends playing in it, and I said, ‘Wow, that would be awesome.’ I think it is going to be fun.

“We also get to fundraise and help people out, which is a great thing. Nothing better than helping other people out and bettering their day.”

Among the keynote speakers Sunday was Auburn’s Randy Williams, whose daughter, Emily, now 12, suffered a spinal cord injury in a car crash nine years ago.

She received care at a Shriners hospital in Philadelphia.

“So they do orthopedics … and they do spinal cord,” said Williams, a deputy for the Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office. “That was the closest Shrine center that we used. Actually, she had scoliosis (curvature of the spine) that was developing because of the injury, and it is kind of a special injury the Shriners have really trademarked.

“We go there once or twice a year, just kind of check up, follow-ups, and then they give us a plan of course of action to come forward here to our doctors ever six months.”

Williams became a Shriner because of his daughter.

“It is just how much care the people have,” Williams said. “The nurses, the doctors, they want us to treat more kids and helped them get back to normal. It could be a football injury, it could be a cheerleading injury.”

FATHERS AND SONS

Mike Hathaway, who coached Leavitt to the Class C state championship in the fall, helps out at the Lobster Bowl on a nearly annual basis – “I’ve done at least 15, I’d say. I don’t know the exact number, but at least 15,” he said.

This year, he’s stepping up to coach the West team, which will include his son, Sawyer. Oxford Hills’ Mark Soehren, whose team won the school’s first state title in November, will lead the East team, which features his son and Fitzpatrick Trophy winner, Eli.

“We try to rotate the classes,” said Joe Hersom, president of the board of governors of the Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic. “This year would have been a Class A year for us … Coach Soehren jumped right in. He helped with the game last year. He actually played in the North Dakota Shrine Bowl as a high school player. On the West side, we were unsuccessful at finding a Class A coach. Remember, they’ve got to give up a week of their summer, and we respect that.

“Coach Hathaway is an easy one with his record, and he comes year after year to be just around the game and help out in the game, and he offered to step in and take the West squad this year. So at the end of the year, we still had two Gold Ball coaches.”

Leavitt’s Mike Hathaway will be head coach of the West team at the Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic in July. Tony Blasi/Sun Journal

Hathaway calls Lobster Bowl week a coach’s vacation.

“You get some of the best coaches in Maine around for a week and we get to talk football and coach up some of the best guys in the state,” Hathaway said.

The four-time state championship coach also recognizes that the Lobster Bowl is about more than football.

“Obviously, the cause is the main thing. I know a lot of Shriners who have been involved in the game for a long time. I appreciate what those guys do,” Hathaway said. “… It is not too often as a teacher and coach you have a lot of time to help out. This is one of the avenues that I can, so I have always tried to do it when it has been possible. I enjoy the week with the kids and the coaches, too.”

Along with being involved in the Shriners’ cause, Hathaway and Soehren also have the chance to coach their sons one more time.

Hathaway said he believes this is his third time being a head coach at the Lobster Bowl. This is Soehren’s first time as a head coach after serving as an assistant twice.

“I am really looking forward it,” Soehren said.

He added that it is “special” to coach his son.

“I told him after the state championship (and) he gave me a hug,” Soehren said. “It was one of the best moments of my life.”

Eli Soehren is looking forward to standing on the sidelines with his father again.

“I can’t wait to do it,” said Eli, who will play football at Colby College. “I mean, it is going to be a fun week with all the boys. My dad is going to be there, so is two other (Oxford Hills) coaches, and I am looking forward to it.

“I mean, we get to play football (for the Shriners). Everyone loves football. Can’t wait for that.”

ANOTHER GO FOR DON ROUX FIELD

Hathaway also is excited that this year’s game will be in Lewiston.

“It is going to be the first one that I have done where we play at Lewiston,” he said. “So it is neat. It is right next to the Shrine. It is close to my hometown, too. I appreciate that.”

This is the third consecutive year the Lobster Bowl will be in Lewiston – counting the 7-on-7 tournament held in 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We looked at some possible different venues for us to have,” Hersom said. “Lewiston just logistically made a lot of sense. Plus, Jason Fuller, the athletic director over there, he is a Shriner and he played in this game, past president of this game, so he really knows how to put this game on, and it really worked well for us last year, and we are happy to be back this year.

“We were at Waterhouse (Field in Biddeford) for 28 straight years, and then we went to Thornton Academy two years. We talked to all three schools – Lewiston, Thornton Academy and Biddeford – before making our decision last year.”

Hersom said the Shriners try to add new things to each game, like last year’s championship rings.

“We add different little incentives for kids to get involved and get involved in their communities and spread the word of Shriners’ children,” Hersom said.

It’s almost if the Shriner’s Bowl game is a civics lesson.

“It should be,” Hersom said.