With football season in full swing, the head coaches have been named for the 2025 Dartmouth Health Children’s New Hampshire East-West High School All-Star Football Game, powered by Bedford and Nashua Ambulatory Surgical Centers.
More than 80 of the state’s top high school football players will be selected to play in the 2025 fundraising game to benefit programs and services at Dartmouth Health Children’s and Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (CHaD). The 2025 edition of the East vs. West showdown will take place on Friday, June 27, at 6 p.m. at Saint Anselm College.
Team East will be led by Steven Abraham, previous head coach at Salem High School. Abraham was assistant coach for the 2019, 2023, and 2024 All-Star Games and is thrilled to be leading the charge during next year’s matchup.
“I am honored to coach in the CHaD game. It means so much to me personally… to be able to coach these young men one more time and hopefully have an impact on the adults they are becoming. Most importantly, the ability to raise money and awareness for the work the CHaD hospital does,” said Abraham. “The money we raise will be directly responsible in some form to saving a child's life and that is the greatest honor we can have.”
On the West sideline, celebrating his 10th year as Merrimack High School head coach, Kip Jackson returns. Jackson served as head coach in 2023 and has been an assistant coach for Team West in 2021 and 2022.
“The New Hampshire East-West All-Star Football Game supports such a great cause,” Jackson said.” We are all honored to be involved with raising funds and awareness to assist children and families in need of critical services provided by CHaD. This game is also an incredible opportunity to teach young adults about the importance of philanthropy and the positive impacts each person can have on others in the community.”
Returning from last year’s performance is the All-Star Cheerleading Team, led by three Granite State coaches with a passion for this charity game. Chelsea Dennis, director at East Celebrity Elite Londonderry and coach at Londonderry High School, said she is honored for the opportunity to bring New Hampshire’s cheerleaders together in support of Dartmouth Health Children’s.”
Souhegan High School head coach Jada Belt has been coaching charity cheer games for 14 years. “Working with CHaD and raising awareness in order to help children, and coaching amazing athletes, are all of the reasons I feel so honored and blessed to be part of this game,” Belt said.
Dennis and Belt will be joined by Windham High School coach Karissa Edelstein. “[The games] made such an impact on me,” said Edelstein, who cheered in the East-West game as a high school senior I am so grateful to be able to create these memories for kids as a coach.”
All high school coaches in New Hampshire are invited to submit football player and cheerleader nominations online at Chadallstarfootball.org. The coaching staff will draft players in early December, followed by an orientation in February at Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, where athletes will learn about the game, how it benefits patients and families, and how they can support the cause with fundraising of their own.
The New Hampshire East-West All-Star Football game is a vital fundraiser for Dartmouth Health Children’s. Proceeds are used to help provide kids with critical services, such as support when they are in pediatric intensive care and management of chronic illnesses, as well as patient and family support services. Players are not required to fundraise to play in the game. Even so, over the past 12 years, players have collectively raised over $750,000. This past year, in 2024, players raised an impressive $69,615, helping make history as the game’s most profitable year, raising over $312,000 for the patients and families we serve. Thank you to all players, coaches, and sponsors for their dedication and generosity.
Sponsorship packages for 2025 are available to businesses and organizations that wish to support the cause. Tickets will be available beginning in February.
Additional information and nomination forms can be found at, www.Chadallstarfootball.org.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and the state’s largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital and multiple locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory and specialty services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.
About Dartmouth Health Children's
Dartmouth Health Children's is the only comprehensive pediatric healthcare system in the region. Fully integrated in Dartmouth Health and anchored for more than 30 years by Children's Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (CHaD)—in Lebanon, NH—Dartmouth Health Children's promotes health, advances knowledge, and delivers the best patient and family-centered care for infants, children, and adolescents across New Hampshire and Vermont. Dartmouth Health Children's conducts groundbreaking research and educates the next generations of health professionals as the primary pediatric partner of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Highly skilled and collaborative child health professionals provide care in multiple settings across the region. Outpatient specialty visits and same-day surgery services are available at Children's Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (CHaD) and Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics Manchester. Primary care appointments in general pediatrics are available at Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics in Bedford, Concord, Lebanon, Manchester and Nashua, NH and Bennington, VT; as well as at Dartmouth Health members: Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, Cheshire Medical Center, New London Hospital and Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center.