Newman’s Daniel Kelly takes in final football action at Shrine Game

BLOOMINGTON − Newman’s Daniel Kelly put together quite a senior year for the Comets last season.

For his efforts, the IHSFCA Class 1A All-Stater and unanimous All-Three Rivers Athletic Conference first-teamer got to participate in the 51st annual all-star Shriners Game at Illinois Wesleyan University’s Tucci Stadium on Saturday.

The game featured players from across the state coming together month after the season ended to put the pads on one more time for their schools.

For Kelly, who will not be playing football at the next level, the game was likely his last chance to play some competitive football.

“It was definitely really fun,” he said. “Going into it, I wasn’t too sure how to feel about it because I’m not playing in college. But once you get on that field, everything kind of goes away and you’re just playing football again. It was really fun.”

The Shriners Game is hosted by the Peoria chapter of Shriners International and features a Blue Team going up against a Red Team, with the players for each being selected by the Illinois Coaches Association. Kelly was on the Blue Team for the game, which came out on top by a score of 29-7 over the Red Team.

The game also capped off a busy week for the all-stars. They all checked in on Tuesday, which was also the first of four straight days with practices for the participating athletes.

With so many new faces among the players at the Shrine Game, Kelly said that the prospect of showing up and meeting everybody was not terribly exciting to him, but once he got down to Bloomington things proved to be enjoyable.

“It was really fun to meet and bond with all these people,” he said. “The first day you don’t really know anybody, and you’re thinking ‘eh, this is gonna suck.’ But throughout the day you really bond with these people... Fortunately we came out on top, too.”

Kelly was part of a Blue defense that buckled down throughout the game, holding Red to just a single score while the offense overcame a slow start to pull away.

After recording 81 solo tackles last season for the Comets, Kelly added a couple more on Saturday to close out his football career.

“It was not as many tackles as I wanted, but when you’re playing with all these amazing people, you’re not always going to get the most tackles,” he said. “But getting to do that again, it felt awesome. Especially being defensive-minded, it was really fun.”

Although the Shriners Game was the marquee event to close out the week, it was hardly the only event the players got to take part in in Bloomington.

There was a visit with some patients from Shriners Children’s Hospital of Chicago on Wednesday. On Thursday there was a cookout and a Central Illinois Miracle League baseball game, where the football players were paired up with children with disabilities to play in the game.

There was a banquet on Friday, with the week’s remaining time spent on the practices and giving the players the opportunity to hang out.

With the week now in the rearview mirror, Kelly said the opportunity he and his fellow all-stars had to give back to the community was something he appreciated.

“It’s not just about the football, it’s about the kids that can’t play football too,” he said. “We did a softball game with people that had disabilities, and that was a blast. We had the Shriners come in on Friday and talk with us about that. It was really fun to bond with these people and play again.”