Area high school athletes made their mark this past Saturday as they took on one more opportunity at playing high school-level football. Kenosha St. Joe’s DeAndre Baptiste, as well as Kenosha Bradford’s Christian Crump among others, seized that opportunity and raised money for a good cause on Saturday in the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association All-Star games at UW-Oshkosh’s Titan Stadium.

Baptiste made his mark for the South Small squad with four solo tackles and 4.5 total tackles in a 25-7 loss to the North squad on Saturday afternoon. Baptiste considered the experience everything as he learned a lot and his team helped raise $101,000 for Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin; he raised $950 for the charity as part of the event.

“The experience is everything as you learn a lot, play and be coached by the best of the best,” Baptiste said. “Ultimately, we get to raise a lot of money. I am grateful that I got to play with these guys and learn from the coaches.”

Future football plans for Baptiste and Crump

Baptiste will head down to a warmer climate for his college football as he will walk on at Georgia State this fall.

“Football all year long as I get (to) work my behind off every day,” Baptiste said of playing at Georgia State.

Kenosha Bradford graduate and future UW-Whitewater football player Christian Crump made his mark in the large game as he caught two touchdown passes for the South Large squad in a narrow 21-20 loss to the North team. Crump caught a 23-yard touchdown pass from Arrowhead’s Charlie Smith with 8:56 left in the third quarter before catching a 17-yard touchdown pass from Smith midway through the quarter to tie the game.

“I just have been putting the work in the offseason and came on the field and perform,” Crump said of scoring two touchdowns. “That was really my mindset.”

Crump also got to spend one more game playing with two of his high school teammates including Stefon Jackson-Mitchell and Dilan Williamson. Both Crump and Jackson-Mitchell enjoyed playing one more game with each other.

“It meant a lot to play with my boy,” Jackson-Mitchell said.

“It was a great experience as we had the Marines come and do some team bonding stuff with us as well as doing different stuff through the week as a team,” Ivan said of the experience.

Ivan raised just under $3,000 for the Children’s Hospital, while Arendt raised just under $1,300 for the charity.

“It meant a lot; a girl named Mikayla came to our practice on Thursday and hearing her story meant a lot and made me want to fight a lot more for this game,” the Franklin grad Arendt said.

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