Ferris State Football Program Announces Recruiting Class

Bulldogs Sign 12 Student-Athletes To Letters of Intent

Twelve of the 13 signees hail from the state of Michigan and include a few prep all-state performers.

“I’m really happy about the quality of our recruiting class,” said Pierce, who enters his ninth season at FSU this fall with the second highest winning percentage (.606 – 54-35-0) among all-time Bulldog coaches. “We attracted a lot of top notch student-athletes from successful high school programs. With almost everyone coming back for this upcoming season which is a positive from our program’s standpoint, we had to be highly selective in the number of scholarships offered.”

By position, the class includes six offensive and and seven defensive players. The offensive players include three linemen, one quarterback, one fullback and one placekicker. Defensively, Ferris State recruited three defensive backs, two linebackers along with two defensive ends.

“As a coaching staff, we had to identify our needs and be careful we didn’t overspend in certain areas due to scholarship limitations,” stated Pierce. “We placed a great deal of emphasis on a recruits’ speed and athletic ability. “I believe this level of talent will give us a great opportunity to be successful in the future. Talent wise, this group is comparable to our classes the last few years.”

Those earning prep all-state honors this past fall include quarterback C.J. VanWieren (Holland/West Ottawa), linebacker Jordan Moore (Ada/Lowell), offensive lineman Ben Willard (Jackson) and defensive end Erik Schumacher (Lake Isbella/Beal City). The highly-touted VanWieren, who threw for 2,139 yards and 29 touchdowns this season to rank 20th all-time among the state’s single-season passing leaders and sixth in touchdowns for a season, received Class A All-State First Team accolades along with first-team recognition on The Detroit News’ and Grand Rapids Press’ Dream Teams. VanWieren will also play men’s basketball for the Bulldogs. Willard and Schumacher were both honored by The Detroit News as all-state selections. Moore was named to the Grand Rapids Press’ All-Area Dream Team and was chosen an all-state honorable mention pick by The Detroit News.

Besides the individuals mentioned above, Pierce and his staff signed a pair of offensive linemen, Bill Bourdlais (Newberry) and Richard Dorion (Bay City/John Glenn) along with fullback Mike Hamilton (Portage/Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic) on offense. The lone outstate recruit was placekicker Levi Slager (Polo, Ill.). Those on defense include defensive backs Doug Emery (Kentwood/Grand Rapids Creston), who was coached by former FSU quarterback Sparky McEwen, Daniel McKinney (Detroit/Benedictine) and LaMar Williams (Flint/Northern). Rounding out the group are defensive end Paul Ethington (Grand Blanc) and linebacker Eric Mattson (Muskegon/Catholic Central).

Bill Bourdlais will join his older brother, Jim Bourdlais, who inked with the Bulldogs a season ago, as members of the 2003 Ferris State football team.

The Bulldogs concluded the 2002 season with a 5-5 overall record, which included a sixth-place 4-5 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) mark.

2003 Ferris State Bulldogs Football Signees
Name	Pos.	Ht.	Wt.	Hometown/High School	Head Coach
Bill Bourdlais	OL	6-4	245	Newberry	Brandon Bruce
Richard Dorion	OL	6-4	245	Bay City/John Glenn	Mark Miller
Doug Emery	DB	6-0	192	Kentwood/Grand Rapids Creston	Sparky McEwen
Paul Ethington	DE	6-2	216	Grand Blanc	Joe Delaney
Mike Hamilton	FB	6-2	227	Portage/Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic	Bill Smith
Eric Mattson	LB	6-0	219	Muskegon/Catholic Central	Mike Holmes
Daniel McKinney	DB	5-7	148	Detroit/Benedictine	Charles Spann
Jordan Moore	LB	6-0	212	Ada/Lowell	Noel Dean
Erik Schumacher	DE	6-3	205	Lake Isabella/Beal City	Lou Rau
Levi Slager	PK	6-0	170	Polo, Ill.	Chad Kline
C.J. VanWieren	QB	6-4	215	Holland/West Ottawa	Jim Caserta
Ben Willard	OL	6-3	255	Jackson	Ben Pack
LaMar Williams	DB	6-0	164	Flint/Northern	Gary Lee