Iowa State QB Devon Moore among standouts at 45th Iowa Shrine Bowl

CEDAR FALLS - Waterloo West quarterback Devon Moore took to the field in the UNI-Dome on Saturday for the first time at the start of the second quarter.

His first drive, a quick three-and-out. On his second drive, he threw an interception. The Iowa State commit was off to a slow start at the 45th Iowa Shrine Bowl.

Finally, on his third drive of the day, Moore found his mark. He drilled a pass right over the middle of the field to South Central Calhoun wide receiver Kody Case for a touchdown.

Moore's play, along with many others, led the North over the South 30-13 in the annual All-Star Game - which pits some of the best high school seniors from around the state against each other one final time, all while raising money to benefit the Shriner's Hospitals for Children.

'When you have a bunch of all-stars out there playing against you, it's hard to get things going,” Moore said. 'But I thought we played good as a team. We rolled around and we went out there and we fought hard, and we played good.”

Moore, who was one of Iowa State Coach Matt Campbell's first commitments when he took the reigns of the program before last season, enrolled in summer classes in Ames and has begun working out with the team.

Moore will report to the Cyclones' fall camp on Sunday, officially kicking off his college career. And while it could have been easy to overlook the all-star game and just focus on preparing for Iowa State, that thought didn't cross Moore's mind.

'When I was a kid, I just loved watching all of the great athletes that came out of Iowa that I looked up to,” Moore said. 'I just loved watching all them play the game. So I just thought it would be a fun experience for me to get around all the other good players in Iowa, try to make a change and definitely try to help out the Shriner's and get that thing going for all the things they do for those kids. It's just amazing.”

Many local players were nominated to join Moore in this year's Shrine Bowl. Cedar Rapids Prairie's Calvin Hynek, Iowa City Regina's Reagan Ries and West Branch's Luke Lenoch were on the South team. Cedar Rapids Kennedy's Johnson Mator, Cedar Rapids Xavier's Maliki Wilson, Center Point-Urbana's Jo Jo Frost and Benton Community's Riley Pfiffner, among others, were on the North team.

And while what took place during the 60 minutes on the field Saturday at the UNI-Dome doesn't count for anything, North coach Greg Thomas - who is the head coach at Humboldt - said it's what they've been doing all week long that matters.

He doesn't care how they played in the game. That wasn't the point of it. He just cares about the impact they had.

'The scoreboard in the UNI-Dome or the scoreboard in any game doesn't matter,” Thomas said. 'What I'm interested in is the scoreboard of life. These guys are special football players and will have great futures, but I said what we really need as a society, we're going to be able to judge what they did five, 10, 15, 20 years down the road as fathers, as husbands, as community members. That's what our society desperately needs, is for these guys to be extraordinary men of character.”

l Comments: ryan.young@thegazette.com