On this week of Ferris Sports Update, Brody Keiser is joined by Ferris Tennis Head Coach Mark Doren, Football Assistant coach Sam Parker, and Men’s Basketball player Reece Hazelton.
Tennis
This week’s episode of Ferris Sports Update host Brody Keiser sits down with our first guest Mark Doren, Head Coach of the Men’s and Women’s Tennis team. Brody and Mark discuss the success of the season so far.
Men’s Tennis has been doing extremely well recently, with the past three games being 7-0 victories. Grand Valley State was the biggest match of the three games. The men’s team really put in the work and maintained the energy they needed to get the win.
The Women’s team also saw a victory against Grand Valley State. While the game was a bit closer compared to the men’s team, they maintained the momentum they needed to steal the win for the match.
Mark talks about the excitement for the upcoming game against Wayne State University. After talking to the Head Coach of the Wayne State team, Mark mentions that Wayne State views Ferris as their main rival and further goes into detail about how our teams are getting national attention.
Football
Next Keiser talks to Football Run Game Coordinator and Offensive Line Coach Sam Parker, first they talk about how Ferris Football is doing during the spring of 2024 Parker calling this spring “one of the best springs we’ve ever had”. Parker talks about how last year they felt like they didn’t meet the standards that they had set over the last couple years mentioning that they felt that they had to go back to the drawing board.
Parker then talks about how people are proud to be a part of Ferris Football having experiences where he would notice people around town wearing Ferris Football merchandise as well as having people talk to him about the team while he was out doing simple tasks such as going to the bank.
Next Parker talks about what they felt like was really weak last year and how they felt like they needed to work on their pass blocking, he mentions that last year the offensive line was full of younger guys which came with “growing pains” which Parker mentions that after last year the players are taking their dedication, and tackling these “growing pains” at the highest level he had seen during the spring season,
Lastly Parker talks about how he feels like they have a very strong team with multiple players that he feels will be a threat this year and is overall excited for the season.
Basketball
Lastly on Ferris Sports Update, Brody sits down with Junior forward Reece Hazelton to reflect on this past season. The Bulldogs finished with a record of 28-8 and made it to the Elite Eight, losing to Minnesota State. Reece talks about how playing in the game itself was a big opportunity, but also how good everything else was that they experienced in Evansville, Indiana. He talks about the banquet they went to and how they chatted with some veterans of the game and listened to a good speaker.
Reece also discusses how one of the strengths of the team throughout the season was how the team really stayed on track despite frequent injuries. He discusses how everyone really grew in the roles that they were put into based on the team’s needs. Reece himself suffered a long-term injury during the season and reflects on how tough it was to watch the team go through the level of inconsistency that it did with players rotating through different positions. Reece talks about how he is focused on being healthy for next year and being 100% ready to go for the next season; also, he wants to be a leader next year for the new guys coming in and is excited to get to know the squad for next year.
Stay tuned for another episode of Ferris Sports Update next week!