Senior football player and center defensive tackle Ben Schilling was only a sophomore when he was a part of the undefeated State Championship team at LHS. He has been an integral part of the football team over the past several years, bringing not only talent, but leadership and experience.

Schilling was recently named to the South Dakota Elite-45 football team, a team where the 45 best players from all of the conferences of high school football in South Dakota are honored and recognized for their contributions. He has had a very successful high school football career at LHS, earning All-City and All-Conference awards as well as the Most Inspirational Lineman award at LHS, but being named to the Elite-45 team is the biggest and most widely recognized award.

“It meant a lot that I was recognized as being one of the better players,” said Schilling. “There is at least a few thousand players in the state so to be named in the top 45 means a lot and showed that all of the hard work that I put in meant something.”

As a senior leader, Schilling worked hard in practices and games to push his teammates to be the best players possible and was a teammate that could be counted on.

“I was always trying to push kids in the offseason to try and be as good as they can be, lift as much as they can, make sure they are getting to all of the practices and everything that we did as far as camps,” said Schilling. “Then I tried to be a vocal leader on the field in practices and in games, keep everyone up even when we were struggling and losing and try to push everyone to still play at their top level.”

After graduation, Schilling plans on attending Minnesota State University in Moorhead to continue his football career and potentially pursue a career in coaching, although it is too early to tell that part of his future. Looking back on the highs and lows of an athletic career is bittersweet for any high school athlete, and Schilling has many highlights to reminisce about over his great career.

“Any time we beat any other in-city team was always fun,” said Schilling. “I’ve just had a fun time playing here, it was good to be with my close friends playing, having fun, even when we didn’t do that great.”