Faith In the Freshman » Sports Shorts

New Article: “For Ferry, the carousel stops at Cornell”

Patrick Ferry — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 12:30:43 +0000

Our friends over at the Cornall Basketball blog recently posted an article from the Ithaca Journal about Andrew and his upcoming season. Enjoy reading it below…

By Brian Delaney
The Ithaca Journal
November 1, 2010

By the time they departed Cornell, Steve Donahue’s coaching staff had become particularly adept at identifying, evaluating and recruiting transfer talent to Cornell. The staff’s final transfer, 6-foot-2 junior guard Andrew Ferry, is expected to help define the success levels of Bill Courtney’s first two years as new coach.

Donahue’s staff felt that, with Ferry, they added a player similar to immensely popular former guard Adam Gore – a guard that brought not only a dependable three-point stroke, but also a tough competitiveness to both ends of the floor and, perhaps most important, a compatible attitude. Now, Ferry is acclimating himself to his fourth school in four years (including his high school, Milwaukee Lutheran) and ready to finally settle down.

Ferry said he didn’t get much attention from Division I programs out of high school, primarily because of his size. (“I was a little small,” he said. “I was like 5-10, 120 pounds or something; a little more than that, but I wasn’t getting too many looks and Valpo gave me a chance to walk on.”)

Ferry spent his freshman year as a walk-on at Valparaiso, and played sparingly in 22 games. (Valparaiso plays in the ultra-competitive mid-major Horizon League). That team went 9-22, and he said coach Homer Drew told him that with four new guard recruits expected to arrive for the 2009-10 season, he would be starting back down at the bottom of the depth chart, again as a walk-on. So Ferry, who badly wanted to play meaningful minutes at a Division I program, opted to transfer to Palm Beach State College in Florida.

“I thought if I wanted to play Division I somewhere else, I had to go to junior college to get some exposure,” he said. “I went down to Florida, to Palm Beach, and I was fortunate enough to work hard and have a pretty good year. I had some Division I looks, and with the success Cornell’s had, and their academics, it was just a perfect fit.”

Ferry said his choices came down to Cornell, La Salle, Toledo (before coach Gene Cross left) and Liberty. Nat Graham did the heavy lifting on Ferry’s recruitment, but when Donahue left for Boston College, it was AD Andy Noel that initially eased any nervousness from Ferry’s camp with a reassuring phone call. Before Noel even hired Courtney, Ferry re-affirmed his commitment to the Big Red.

“I didn’t decommit, but I talked to Andy Noel to make sure I was making the right decision,” Ferry said. “Because the coaches, I really liked the coaches and what they were doing. That was a big part of my decision. So I kind of took a big step back to re-evaluate everything, and then even before they hired coach Courtney, I realized Cornell was the school (I wanted).”

Courtney’s honesty and charm certainly helped ease Ferry’s mind.

“I felt good with him right away,” he said. “I was very comfortable with him and couldn’t wait to get started.”

Still, questions naturally lingered. Donahue’s offensive system felt like a perfect fit for Ferry’s perimeter skill set. Would Courtney’s style feel the same way? After two weeks of practice, Ferry is getting more and more comfortable that the answer is yes.

“I think coach Courtney still has (the 3-pointer) high on his priority list offensively,” Ferry said. “We have some great shooters, and I think we’re still going to utilize that.”

Ferry shot 45.5 percent from the arc at Palm Beach State. Last season, Chris Wroblewski shot 45.4 percent from 3 over 30 minutes per game (and that number will likely dip a bit due to the attention that will be paid to him this year), and Max Groebe shot 56 percent in limited time and has the the purest on the roster. Not saying those are the target numbers for those guys this year, but if each shoots around that 38-40 percent mark? Cornell will remain a tough team to defend. And that’s exactly what Donahue and his staff had in mind when they targeted Ferry.

“Right now we have some guys who are banged up, but once everybody’s healthy and competitive with each other, I think we have enough talent to compete in pretty much every game,” Ferry said.

Coach Bill Courtney and Cornell’s Recruits

Patrick Ferry — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 20:21:14 +0000

See the article by the Ithaca Journal’s Brian Delaney here.

Trip to Ithaca

Patrick Ferry — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:26:49 +0000

Back to school! Concordia doesn’t resume classes until next Monday. The rest of the family gets going today. Stephen’s first day of his senior year at Milwaukee Lutheran coincides with his sister Hannah’s first day as an English and Spanish teacher at the same school. I wonder if he’ll remember to call her Mrs. Meineke? The college kids also start classes today.

Rachel is a sophomore at Concordia Texas in Austin. She is thrilled to be back in the Lone Star state surrounded by her friends from Concordia. Andrew is a junior at Cornell in Ithaca, New York. Unlike Rachel, he really knows no one at school. But, he’s just as eager to get going.

We made the trek across Canada with a brief stop at Niagara Falls to deliver Andrew — no car for him this year! The trip to Ithaca went smooth if not straight. The closest distance between two points in that part of New York is not a straight line. There are no straight ways to get to or around once you arrive in Ithaca.

We didn’t even go straight to see Coach Courtney when we arrived. I don’t think Andrew was too excited for him to see the splint on his wrist. That was better than the cast and sling he had on when he got off the plane from China.

The trip to China was wonderful. Andrew described the opportunities for spiritual growth, cultural experience, and basketball competition. Everything went well — until the next-t0-last game when he hurt his right wrist.

The original diagnosis was a fracture. That, however, was not the conclusion of the doctor here in Milwaukee. Whatever the case, Andrew has a couple of weeks of healing and rehabilitation before he can return to the court. There are no straight lines to get you where you want to go!

Check here for a recent interview with Coach Courtney by the Ithaca Journal.

China Update

Patrick Ferry — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:00:15 +0000

Andrew is on his way home from China. They had a great trip, and were undefeated against Chinese national and professional teams going into the final game (I haven’t heard how that turned out). Below is an excerpt describing the end of their closest game….

Had a long but good travel day Saturday to Changchun, a large city 750(?)km northeast of Beijing.

Conducted an impromptu basketball clinic for 40 of China’s finest up-and-coming elite basketball players, ages 15-17. Time went very well. PTL. Organizers were very pleased and welcomed any further contact. Would like to do more with them, maybe on Monday. Our sharing time with them at the end of the clinic was extremely well received. Talked a lot about love and sharing. Clinic ended with all the players signing and shouting a rousing “Love you, too!” to all! Love goes a long way in every culture. This culture is starved for this kind of leadership.

Game on Friday night was dramatic. Surrendered a narrow 3-possession lead we held for most of the game in the 4th quarter and fell behind by 5 points with 4:36 to play in the game. Managed to win by 5, remarkably, outscoring the Liaoning Hunters, 13-3, down the stretch. Many guys played a key role in the comeback. Andrew Ferry hit the big dagger — a long-range 3 from the left wing with 25-seconds to go to give us assured separation after holding a one-point lead. Had some phenomenal time sharing C with some of the Hunters in a post-game meal that followed. Think 2-3 guys are close…

Cornell Announced New Incoming Class

Patrick Ferry — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 17:55:04 +0000

The Cornell University Athletic Department announced the incoming class for next year’s basketball team. Check out the story here.

Meanwhile Andrew is with his Athletes in Action team in China. It is hard to follow his progress considering we are traveling in Germany and Switzerland. We will have some stories to tell when we get home!

Andrew Invited to Join “Athletes in Action” in China

lynne.schroeder — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 18:59:19 +0000

Before he heads to Ithaca and Cornell later in August, Andrew has accepted the invitation to join an Athletes in Action team traveling to China.

The team will compete against some of China’s top professional squads as well as the Chinese 21 & under National Team.

Of course, the purpose of Athletes in Action is not only basketball. The opportunity to grow in faith in Christ and to share the message of Christian hope is integral to the experience. Along with the competition, the Athletes in Action team will conduct basketball clinics and participate in community service work.

Interested in learning more about or supporting the Athletes in Action and Andrew’s tour? Contact me at patrick.ferry@cuw.edu, and I’ll send you information!

FOX 6 interview of Jake Barnett and Andrew Ferry

Patrick Ferry — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:58:33 +0000

Andrew and his friend, Jake Barnett, have been workout partners for a long time. I talk about Jake a little bit in Faith in the Freshman. In this video, Andrew is at the right place at the right time. FOX 6 was doing a feature on Jake’s trip to Bulgaria this summer with Athletes in Action. They also interviewed Andrew and both guys talk about their plans for next year.

Cornell Hoops Blog. . .

Patrick Ferry — Wed, 19 May 2010 22:23:28 +0000

Click here for the Cornell Hoops blog and Andrew’s place among transfers to the basketball program.

Another update about Andrew and Cornell

Patrick Ferry — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:30:38 +0000

Another update from the Cornell Hoops blog about Andrew’s place among transfers. Let me know what you think. ~Pat

http://cornellbasketball.blogspot.com/2010/05/news-and-notes-wednesday-edition_19.html#more

An update from Andrew…Cornell!

Patrick Ferry — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:30:18 +0000

I’ll let Andrew speak for himself this time. Here is what he has to say, “After much consideration, thought, and prayer, I have made my decision to attend Cornell University. I believe Cornell is the perfect place to pursue my basketball goals as well as receive a high quality education. I am looking forward to getting started and getting back into the NCAA Tournament next year! Thanks for all the support and prayers!”

So, it is official, Andrew has decided to attend Cornell University next year. The links below are from the website and blog that covers Cornell basketball (and they do so very thoroughly! You will be able to follow Cornell as they defend their Ivy League championship and make their way back to the NCAA tournament once again. Badgers fans beware!).

http://cornellbasketball.blogspot.com/2010/03/recruiting-news-ferry-to-cornell.html

http://cornellbasketball.blogspot.com/2010/04/news-and-notes-afternoon-edition_18.html#more