Veteran Great Bend football coach Erin Beck first remembered meeting Ian Premer a decade ago. Around second or third grade, Premer came to the GB summer camps. Beck recalled the quiet Premer alongside his talkative friend Daxton Minton.
“I just remember this long, lanky, herky jerky kid that played running back,” Beck said to Kpreps this week. “He grew up playing that position because of his special awareness, even as a youth, was so impressive. He was super quiet and kind, but ultra competitive.”
The duo eventually helped Great Bend football enjoy a massive turnaround. The Panthers had posted winless seasons in 2020 and ’21. In the last four years, Great Bend went 7-3, 6-4, 9-1 and 11-1 this past fall. The 11-0 start was the best in school annals. Minton had a highly decorated career as a quarterback, while Premer emerged as Kansas’ best football player and a national recruit.
Individually, no one will be remembered more in 2025 Kansas high school football than Premer, the Panthers’ 6-foot-6, 240-pound all-purpose threat. A Notre Dame commit, Premer was the nation’s top-ranked tight end and No. 1-player in Kansas. He had 30-plus Division I offers.
Additionally, Premer has a tremendous impact off the field and in the surrounding area. Premer is the winner of the Dylan Meier Get Busy Livin’ award, the most prestigious honor Kpreps gives. The honor goes to one senior football player each year.
The award goes to someone who has not only shown excellence on the field but also demonstrated the values that Dylan embodied and GBL strives to promote: adventure, fitness, curiosity, and daily zest for life experiences.
The 16th annual GBL 5k race will take place this Saturday May 2nd, at Hutchinson Football Field located next to Pittsburg Middle School. Start time is 9:30 a.m.
Along with his football talent, Premer was a National Honor Society member, part of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) Leadership Team and on the Fort Hays State Math Relays team.
At the Nov. 13, 2025 FHSU math relays, Premer helped the Panthers to a third-place finish with 60.5 points in the 4A-6A division. He was first among seniors in Applications of Algebra, Arithmetic. Premer took sixth among seniors in the Informal Geometry and Measurement category. Multiple times, youth came up to Premer after games for pictures.
“It is definitely an honor to receive this award,” Premer told KPreps this week. “What makes this award different is what it stands for and how you win it. Most awards are won completely on the field. However, this award is won by demonstrating the “Get Busy Livin” values, and that makes it so special to receive. To be recognized off the field by the organization means a lot.”
This year, no one scored at a higher rate in Kansas than Premer. He finished with 56 carries for 620 years and 14 scores. Premer delivered 40 catches for 734 yards and another 14 touchdowns. Defensively, he collected 68 tackles, five for loss.
He picked off six passes, two for touchdowns. Notably, Premer was involved in the tackle/stop on basically every play on the game-winning goal line stand in the 5A quarterfinal win versus rival Hays High. HHS had first and goal from the eight-yard line in a 29-22 GB win. Premer also made a remarkable 21-yard TD catch on a pass from Minton with 55 seconds left in the third quarter.
On his postgame radio show after that game, Hays High coach Tony Crough heavily praised Premer. Crough noted three times that Premer “made every play down the stretch.”
“If that is not the best football player on the planet,” Crough said.
In his career, Premer finished with 105 catches for 1,869 yards and 31 scores. He also delivered 234 tackles, seven for loss, 14 interceptions and four defensive touchdowns. As a junior, Premer averaged 24 points and 11 rebounds in basketball and helped GBHS to a 5A state runner-up finish in baseball. It marked the baseball program’s furthest advancement in 27 years. Premer earned all-state in football, basketball and baseball as a sophomore and junior.
“Ian is the best football player I’ve seen in my 16 years of coaching,” Beck said. “Most people know about his 6-6, 240-pound frame and his elite basketball background that helps him dominate on both ends of the ball. But what is really cool about this award is being recognized for the stuff that not everyone knows about. This award highlights what makes Ian different. His work ethic, humility and competitiveness and just his kindness toward others. He makes everyone else around him better. You combine all these traits and not only do you get an All-State caliber kid, you get a future All-American and pro. Notre Dame is a different university and program, and they are truly getting a different kind of “Get Busy Livin” human.”
Kpreps Dylan Meier - Get Busy Livin Player of the Year -- 2025 Finalists
(listed alphabetically by last name)
Klayton Adamson, St. Mary’s Colgan
Wes Anderson, Frankfort
Jesus Delgado, Salina Central
Zane Farney, Sterling
Carter Hajek, Nemaha Central
Matt Rosen, Holcomb
Savion Stone, KC Washington
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Dylan Meier – Get Busy Livin’ Player of the Year Award
The award is in honor of Dylan Meier, a former All-State quarterback at Pittsburg High School and starter at Kansas State University who died in a hiking accident in 2010 at the age of 26.
The award goes out to one Kansas high school senior who not only has shown excellence on the field but also has demonstrated the values that Dylan embodied and Get Busy Livin’ (GBL) strives to promote: adventure, fitness, curiosity and a daily zest for life experiences.
The award is made possible by the Get Busy Livin’ Foundation and Kpreps.com.
Past award winners include:
2024 – Cade Howell, Conway Springs
2023 – Dawson Kindler, Gardner-Edgerton
2022 – Nolan Freund, Kingman
2021 – Jaren Kanak, Hays
2020 – No award named
2019 – Tyler Green, Mill Valley
2018 – Jace Friesen, Basehor-Linwood
2017 – Carter Putz, Bishop Miege
2016 – Will Schneider, Shawnee Mission North
2015 – Tucker Horak, Rossville
2014 – Denzel Goolsby, Bishop Carroll
2013 – Austin Chambers, Shawnee Mission West
2012 – Brad Strauss, Lawrence
2011 – Kole Schankie, Madison
ABOUT DYLAN MEIER & THE GET BUSY LIVIN’ FOUNDATION
Dylan Meier, a 2002 graduate of Pittsburg High School, was a two-time All-State quarterback for the Purple Dragons. He continued his football career at Kansas State University and started 11 games from 2004-06 as the Wildcats’ signal caller.
On April 19, 2010, Meier died at the age of 26 in an accident while hiking with family in Arkansas.
In addition to his time in Kansas, Dylan played professional football in Germany and Italy, served as a bodyguard for Italian fashion models, worked in a vineyard overseas, ran with the bulls in Spain and went skydiving in the Alps. His next plans included coaching football in Europe, teaching English in Korea and possibly a return to Kansas State as a graduate assistant.
“He had a real zest for life,” Merle Clark, Dylan’s high school coach and family friend said days after the accident. “He lived a lot in his 26 years.”
That zest for life is the basis of the Get Busy Livin’ Foundation that was established in Dylan’s honor. The mission is to provide support for individuals and groups that embody the values that Dylan pursued: adventure, fitness, curiosity, generosity and a daily zest for life experiences.
The GBL Foundation is determined to break down the boundaries that keep people from living life to the fullest, whether those boundaries are social, economic or imaginary.
GBL uses donations to promote these values in the following ways: student/athletic scholarships, sport camp sponsorships, student travel abroad scholarships, community service needs and other activities that inspire and build character.
For more information, please visit http://getbusylivin.org.
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