Shrine team will soon take shape
By Roger Brown
nhfootballreport.com
Craig Kozens, New Hampshire's coach for this year's Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl, said the New Hampshire roster could be in place this weekend.
Kozens, who guided Laconia High School to the Division IV championship last season, will be part of a Shrine selection meeting Sunday. Milford's Keith Jones, who coached New Hampshire to a 23-20 victory in last year's Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl, and the head coaches from the teams that reached the championship game in their respective divisions last season will also be in attendance.
"I have all the nominations," Kozens said. "Now it's just a matter of breaking them down by division and communicating with each coach."
This year's Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl will be played Aug. 2 at Dartmouth College. Mike Law, the head coach at U-32 High School in East Montpelier, is Vermont's head coach.
Each coach will select a 36-player roster. Kozens must pick nine players from Division I, eight from Division II, seven from Division III, seven from Division IV and five from Division V. He said unless late changes must be made to the roster, New Hampshire is allowed no more than two players from each school.
Vermont can choose no more than three players from each school before it uses its six wildcard selections. There can be no more than seven players from one school on the Vermont roster.
New Hampshire has a 39-13-2 edge in the all time series.
"Selecting this team is not an easy thing to do, and it's going to get harder now that we have six divisions," Kozens said. "Last year's game came down to a field goal. Do we take a kicker or just go with the best kicker out of our position players? Same thing with a long-snapper. There's a lot to sort out."
The teams will be announced in February, and the players will report to training camp on July 23.
