HP Buddy Bowl

On Saturday, May 3, 2025, Highland Park High School students make dreams come true again by helping students with special needs become football champions.​ The eighth annual HP Buddy Bowl event is open to athletes with special needs of all ages and from any North Texas school district. Participants will be paired with a football buddy to help them on the field.

The day includes face painting, balloon making and free ice cream for everyone. Bring your family and friends and help us fill the stands and cheer on these champions to recreate the Friday Night Lights experience for these athletes. The event is a game-changer for everyone who comes.

Register:
To join, families can register starting April 5 by emailing hpbuddybowl@gmail.com. Registration will open to the first 50 athletes who sign up. This is to ensure safety on the field. But all are welcome to attend this free event and enjoy the face painting, balloon making, ice cream and cheering for athletes.

Schedule:
9:30–10am: Check-In
10–10:30am: Practice and fun
10:45am: Game
Noon: Lunch for athletes & buddies, ice cream for everyone

About HP Buddy Bowl:
The HP Buddy Bowl evolved from the vision of a then 14-year-old North Texas middle-school football player and his then 12-year-old sister. In November 2016, they sat around the kitchen table talking about how football is king in Texas, but not everyone gets the chance to play.  They decided the community needed a game that put some very special athletes in a place they don’t typically get to be.

The teenage quarterback, Brayden Schager, and his sister Brielle, asked their friends to help them form a small group to play at a local park pairing up with players with challenges.   It was going to be a little two-hand touch game, but...
 
The Schagers quickly learned their Highland Park, Texas neighbors do nothing small. With an outpouring of support from the community’s huge-hearted families, Brayden’s fellow teammates, his sister Brielle’s classmates, and many very generous local business partners, the little game-at-the-park never happened. Instead, on May 20, 2017, hundreds of people arrived at Highlander Stadium at Highland Park High School for the inaugural event—a massive, community wide effort with food, fun, ice cream, cheerleaders, and football. The HP Buddy Bowl became "a game that was a game-changer!"

Today, Brayden Schager is a quarterback at the University of Hawaii. Brielle is a student at Texas Christian University. The event they founded is an ever-growing annual tradition made possible with the never-ending support of the Highland Park Class of 2021, Highland Park Class of 2023, countless volunteers, service organizations, and the collaboration of key sponsors which the HP Buddy Bowl cannot thank enough. 

Find more family fun events every day of the week at dfwchild.com/calendar.