BLOOMINGTON — Matt Albers may have enjoyed his time on the football field, but it was his experience away from the gridiron that made the 43rd Annual Illinois High School Shrine Game one of the most humbling moments of his life.

Players from nearly 100 different high schools across the state gathered at Illinois Wesleyan University this past week to begin the five-day event hosted by the Peoria chapter of Shriners International. The week began with team practices and media sessions on Tuesday before players journeyed to the Shriners Hospitals for Children in Chicago on Wednesday to visit with patients.

“We took a tour of the hospital, ate lunch with some of the patients and their parents and played games with them after we were done eating,” Albers said. “We met a very special kid named Alec… He’s a great 16-year-old wheelchair basketball player and I was able to experience that first-hand with the other guys by playing some wheelchair basketball with him.”

The Shrine Game experience continued on Thursday, with Albers and his teammates attending the Players Cook Out with the Shriners of Illinois before participating in the Central Illinois Miracle League Baseball Game. The game allowed players to team up with athletes who had either a mental or a physical disorder.

“We were all paired up with a kid and I was blessed to be with a kid named T.J. who is immobilized in a wheelchair, has no feeling in his arms and legs and can only answer to yes or no questions,” Albers said. “A teammate of mine and I played two full innings with him and it was probably the most memorable game of ball I have ever played.”

Friday’s festivities included an Event Banquet at Illinois Wesleyan University’s Memorial Center, and Saturday morning began with the Walk for Love to support Shriners Hospitals of Chicago before players from the East and West teams took the field for the Shrine Game at 11:45. Albers and his West squad teammates dominated the East by a score of 58-7, and for the Rochelle Township High School graduate, it was a fitting end to his high school football career.

“With all the great names in the history of Rochelle football that have went down to this event, my first reaction was just a sense of honor that I would be the next in line to represent our town in the Shrine Game,” Albers said. “It was such a great feeling for me to know that I was representing our town in a state-wide event like this. I was just glad I could go down to Bloomington and say, ‘Hey, I’m from Rochelle,’ to the people I met.”

The Shrine Game may have been a lopsided affair, but Albers said he was proud to share the football field with the top high school athletes in the state. He said he made several new friends throughout the week, and he said he plans to keep in touch with those friends for a long time.

“Knowing that you’re playing with the best players from every different school around the state made me think to myself that I was one of the elites,” Albers said. “From a football standpoint, the fact that every guy on both sides of the ball from both teams knew exactly what he was doing and was physically athletic enough to make up for the mistakes he made was a different experience from what I was used to.”

Albers will begin his college football career in the fall, and he’s hoping to take some of the lessons he learned this past week with him when he suits up for the Augustana Vikings. While the speed of the Shrine Game allowed him to get a taste of what football is like at the next level, the experience he shared with his teammates off the field will stay with him forever.

“One thing I have learned is that nothing is given at this level of competition,” Albers said. “If you wanted a spot to play in the game, you had to earn in and prove you could play better than the other guys at the position you were going for… The biggest things I will take away are the amazing kids I met, the great guys I was teamed up with and experiencing the competition I will have to go against in the future.”