HEBRON — The job description reads like a combination of bed and breakfast host, jail guard, psychiatrist, nurse and football coach:

Spend the hottest week of the year living on a quiet private school campus located in an out-of-the-way hamlet in Western Maine chaperoning recently-graduated young men who are also elite athletes. Work morning, noon and early evening preparing them for a charity football game. Spend evenings drawing up game plans, talking football and swapping stories with your peers while helping the young men deal with homesickness, dehydration, iPhone withdrawal and disputes stemming from NCAA Football 12 before an XBox flies out a dorm room window.

Such is the role of the 16 coaches who have volunteered for the 22nd Annual Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic (4 p.m., Saturday, Biddeford’s Waterhouse Field). Not only are they charged with getting football players who have never played together to become a team in six days, they also have to babysit 90 or so restless teenagers on an isolated campus for a long, hot week.

And the coaches can’t wait to do it again next year.

“I’ll come down here any time anyone asks me,” Mountain Valley and West head coach Jim Aylward said.

A group of Maine high school football coaches that included Barry Richardson of Auburn started the Lobster Bowl 22 years ago. And it is the coaches who help carry on the tradition of the game,  which benefits the Shriners Hospitals for Children,

“It doesn’t happen without the coaches,” said Jason Fuller, athletic director for the Lobster Bowl and Lewiston High School. “They don’t get enough credit for what they do. We ask them to leave their family for a week and come down here and run camp. We’ve been very fortunate. We have great guys that want to be around the game. They’re the key to the whole thing. They keep things organized and keep the kids on task.”

Most of the coaches are also teachers and taking a week out of summer vacation is a sacrifice, according to Lewiston coach Bill County, “but you get spoiled. The Shrine does a great job. The food is always great, the accommodations. My sons come up and spend the week, for the most part. They look forward to it. They talk about it all winter.”

“I don’t have to worry about anything for a week except football,” added County, who was the East head coach last year and is an assistant this year. “You talk about it at dinner. You hang out with some great kids. It’s just a really positive experience.”

County is part of an East coaching staff loaded with Lobster Bowl veterans, along with Mike Marston of Skowhegan, Dan O’Connell of John Bapst, Brad Bishop of Livermore Falls, and this year’s head coach, Leavitt’s Mike Hathaway. Aylward, Tim Roche of Wells and former Fryeburg Academy coach Jim “Fuzzy” Thurston are the regulars on the West staff.

The veteran coaches agree that the biggest reason they keep coming back is the cause.

“As a teacher and a coach, I’m not real financially gifted, so it’s a pretty good way to give back,” Hathaway said.

It’s also a pretty good way for a coach to test and enhance his x-and-o ability.

“You learn a lot. I think it’s been good for me as a coach, coming up through the ranks, working these games when I first started out was huge,” Hathaway said.

 “You get a chance to take your philosophy and your schemes,” he added,  “and you get the best talent in the state and see if you can put it to use.”

The best high school football players in the state have played in the Lobster Bowl over the last two decades. And it is a deep talent pool.

Edward Little coach Dave Sterling, coaching in his first Lobster Bowl, said his eyes have been opened to the quality of talent in classes B and C this week. The game presents a rare opportunity to coach players who stood out in high school not only because of their skill and athleticism, but their knowledge of and dedication to football.

“Even when I played in college at Maine Maritime I didn’t see this good of a group of defensive backs,” said Sterling, who is coaching the East secondary. “It’s like we’re coaching a small college team to get ready for a big game.”

The week is jam packed with football, but there is plenty of free time between practices and meals. The players use the breaks to catch up on sleep or play video games. The coaches usually sit and talk about football or their families or swap stories, although asking them to share some Lobster Bowl stories usually results in some laughter and pleading the fifth.

“Coach O’Connell’s considering writing a book,” County said.

The book would most likely describe a fun, relaxed atmosphere centered around coaching football, but without the usual pressures of high school football. The Lobster Bowl is an intense game, but win or lose, the coaches don’t have to indulge meddling parents or deal with second-guessing from the hometown fans like they do in the fall.

The joys and pitfalls of the job make Maine high school football coaches a tight fraternity. The Lobster Bowl is perhaps their best chance to bond with their brothers.

“I have great respect for any men who spend their adult life doing this with kids. I think this is important work. Boys need men to look after them,” Aylward said. “That’s why I’ve been (coaching football) for 100 years.”

“I’ve done this long enough where I look forward to seeing these guys again in July,” County said. “You’re disappointed when a guy can’t make it.”

Tickets to the Lobster Bowl are $10 reserved and $8 general admission. They are available at the gate or before the game at the Kora Shrine Center at 11 Sabattus St. in Lewiston or from any Shriner.