Ferris State Shakes Up Great Lakes Hierarchy
Ferris State Shakes Up Great Lakes Hierarchy
Grand Valley State racked up another big score, beating Saginaw Valley State 113-7, but the news out of the Great Lakes Conference is Ferris State's defeat of Central Michigan.
CMU has been among the top two in this conference for some years, but Ferris State edged them 34-33 Saturday.
Ferris State has been winning games but it has been difficult to see where they stand because there's a bit of a gap between the conference's top half and the lower half.
This week's win was a marker for FSU.
"Were doing pretty great actually," said player-coach Mitchell Stewart. "We've got 20 rookies and they're learning."
Many of those rookies have not played rugby before, but after a long layoff due to COVID (Michigan was not a state that bounced back quickly) there's a group of college students who missed sporting activities and team activities, and that has bolstered Ferris numbers.
"It's been building the last few years; two years ago we had something like 13 kids by the end of the season," said Stewart. "This yer we have 34, and some great athletes."
Stewart, for his part, is injured and not playing at the moment but he is part of the player coaching group. He is partly responsible for their attack which has been scoring tries.
"Calvin College was a good start for us because it allowed us to start playing and running and getting things accomplished on the field. SVSU was the same. You can only do so much in training so to be able to show it on the field really helped us for this game with Central Michigan.
Flanker Mike Afton led the charge for Ferris State, but they still have a big test to come. November 5 will see FSU take on Grand Valley State. That game will likely decide the conference winner.
