I promised myself that at all costs, I’d avoid writing about Ferris sports in this column as much as possible.
So I won’t talk about how the Volleyball team just shellacked Grand Valley in Allendale to win the GLIAC tournament.
I won’t talk about how they’re entering their fourth consecutive NCAA tournament, or how there’s a chance they could have an epic rematch with the Lakers at Grand Valley in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Nor will I talk about how the football team erased a double-digit fourth quarter deficit to grasp a perfect 11-0 regular season record and in that an undisputed GLIAC title as well as an NCAA tournament first round bye.
It would be against my word to speak of the camo-clad hockey team’s incredible eruption to win a 10-2 game over Alaska-Anchorage this past Thursday, nor their 4-0-shutout domination the next evening.
Between Thursday, Nov. 13 and Sunday Nov. 16, Ferris athletics may have had one of their finest weekends in school history. Two teams taking home undisputed GLIAC titles, another shaking their offensive struggles and scoring 10 goals in a game for the first time since 2002.
It left fans “Wow-ing” their collective way out of Ewigleben Ice Arena. The weekend left Ferris State’s archrival defeated in Grand Valley’s building.
In cars and apartments around the town and state, fans listened as Jason Vander Laan (again) bulwarked his way into the end zone, this time with 36 seconds remaining to clinch a title.
The sweetest part is that it isn’t over. This gets better. Football could have multiple home playoff games. Take a look at the snow coming down. What’s more epic than football in the snow? It’s that old Lambeau feel, “The Frozen Tundra.” Football as it’s meant to be played.
Hockey is just getting started, and soon the team will play in one of the greatest traditions in college hockey, the Great Lakes Invitational in the home of the Detroit Red Wings, Joe Louis Arena.
That weekend of triumph is in the past. And I’m still not going to talk about it.