The 39th Annual 8-Man All-Star Games will take place this Saturday, June 8 at Trojan Field in Beloit. Many area participants will be putting on the pads for the final time at the high school level, but for some, it will be a chance to play one more game in preparation for the college gridiron. Ian Kresin of Lakeside will be one of those players as he takes the field for the Division II East squad Saturday afternoon before he heads off to play football at Kansas Wesleyan in Salina in the fall.
Kresin has been a mainstay with the Lakeside football team over the past four seasons. He helped them to a run in which they never had a losing season. The Knights were 22-14 in that stretch and this past season, they finished with a record of 6-3.
Kresin was instrumental on both sides of the ball. He registered over 1,000 all-purpose yards in each of the last three seasons. He had 1,889 in 2022 as a junior and added 1,696 all-purpose yards as a senior. Most of his damage came on the ground, rushing for 1,246 yards and 16 TD in his junior season and in 2023 as a senior, he was named an all-state running back, compiling 1,448 yards and 32 touchdowns rushing.
Kresin started all four years on defense as well, putting up 194 tackles, including 23 for loss in his career. He also had five interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown his sophomore season. Through his career, Kresin scored a total of 75 touchdowns.
It was not hard to see the reasons for Kresin’s success as he spent a lot of time in the weight room. He was a State powerlifting champion this spring for Lakeside and Kresin talked about the journey of getting to this point in his career.
Ian Kresin will represent Lakeside one last time in the 8-Man DII All-Star Game on Saturday. He will join the rest of the DII East All-Stars in their battle against the West with kickoff at 1:30. Fans can catch the game on KD Country 94 and 8manallstars.com with pregame at 1:00 from Beloit.
