The backseat of DeShaun Thrower’s car is like a mobile locker room. It’s a mess of football cleats, basketball shoes, book bags, long-sleeve T-shirts and Ferris State hoodies.
“When I go home, my parents get on me about it being messy,” Thrower said. “I gotta keep some stuff in my car because I’m always going back and forth.”
Back and forth from football to basketball practice.
Back and forth to national championship games.
Thrower has a chance to win his second national title, in his second sport, in the same calendar year this weekend. Thrower was a back-up guard on the Ferris State men’s basketball team, which won the Division II national title in March. And he will start at defensive back for Ferris in the Division II football national championship game on Saturday against Valdosta State (Ga.) in McKinney, Texas (4 p.m.; TV: ESPNU).
One player? With two national titles? In two different sports? In one year? That's crazy.
Only a handful of schools have held titles in both basketball and football at the same time, including Division I Florida (2006-07), Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater (2013-14), and Division II Northwest Missouri State (2016-17).
“Yeah, yeah,” Thrower says. “I haven’t been thinking about it. But people have been bringing it to my attention and it started blowing up on Twitter.”
Hoop dreams on gridiron
Ferris football coach Tony Annese has tried to use the basketball team as an example of what is possible for his football team.
“I wanted to use what basketball did as an opportunity for our kids to have the vision of how it can happen and have the right mentality,” Annese said. “We used that over and over. I don’t know how many times we have celebrated the national championship team as a football team.”
After Ferris won the basketball title, the football team attended the welcome-home party.
Then, the football team honored the basketball team during its spring game.
“At halftime, we had our football team lined up for a tunnel and every basketball player was announced and walked from the goal line to the 50,” Annese said. “I wanted to use it as much as I could.”
More than anything, Annese has used the basketball team as an example of how it takes unselfish players to win championships, and the best example is Thrower.
Thrower won the 2014 Hal Schram Mr. Basketball award in Michigan and started his career at Division I Stony Brook.
So you would figure he would start after transferring to Ferris, right?
Nope. He came off the bench.
“He didn’t start on our basketball team,” Annese said. “Was he good enough? Absolutely. Could he have cried about that? Or pouted about that? Yeah, he could have. But he did what the coach asked him to do and contributed huge minutes. We wouldn’t have won the basketball championship without him. We’ve used that, as a blueprint of having the right mentality to accept things as they are and make the best of them.”
Duke's Tre Jones guard (3) challenges Ferris State's DeShaun Thrower (1) in the first half of an NCAA college basketball exhibition game, Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018, in Durham, N.C. (Photo: Chuck Liddy, AP)
Thrower said he didn't complain about not starting.
“I didn’t have a problem with that, because it was best for the team,” Thower said.
But this year, his role has changed on the basketball team. Thrower has become a starter, playing in three basketball games, shooting 57.1 percent from 3-point range and averaging 16.0 points per game.
“I always tell everybody that everybody has to play their role, to be successful,” Thrower said, talking about football, but it certainly applies to basketball. “Everybody who comes out of high school is used to being a superstar. Everybody has to play their role.”
'Winningest football team in the state'
Annese is simply one of the best, most successful football coaches in the state — from high school to college. He was inducted into the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame before he even arrived at Ferris.
When he took over Ferris in December 2011, the Bulldogs hadn’t reached the playoffs since 1996. The Bulldogs won one game in 2009, five in 2010 (losing their last five) and six in 2011 (losing four of their last six).
But Annese has turned Ferris into a national powerhouse. Over the last five seasons, the Bulldogs have compiled a 60-7 overall record and claimed three conference championships, posted three unbeaten regular seasons, captured two regional titles and reached the national quarterfinals three times.
Now, Ferris is playing for its first national title in football.
“We raised the bar of expectations,” Annese said. “We weren’t afraid to talk about this vision, playing for a national championship. That’s something we talked about, a goal of ours. Nobody in the nation has done what we have done. Once we raised the bar of expectation, I think the kids raised it beyond almost my comprehension.”
Ferris State University head football coach Tony Annese speaks during the National Football Foundation State of Michigan Chapter awards banquet at the Dearborn Inn in Dearborn on Dec. 10, 2017. (Photo: Junfu Han, Detroit Free Press)
The Ferris media relations department calls the Bulldogs “Michigan’s winningest football program” and proclaims with pride “the Bulldogs have also posted the best winning percentage of all 21 collegiate programs in the state of Michigan” since Annese arrived.
If Ferris wins on Saturday, the Bulldogs would become the first team in NCAA history at any level to finish a season with a 16-0 record. And Thrower would have his second national title.
“Everybody has been talking about the two national title thing, but I haven’t been putting too much emphasis on it,” Thrower said. “Because I want to focus on the task at hand, and that’s to win this championship."
Of course, that title would be twice as nice.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.
