Carson Gulker and his Ferris football teammates were good basketball players, too

Carson Gulker, a quarterback at Ferris State University, warms up before a game against Grand Valley State on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. (Photo | Lenny Padilla).

ALLENDALE, Mich. - Carson Gulker was a load on the basketball court. He looks even bigger in a football uniform and pads.

The Zeeland West High School grad is a 6-foot-3, 220-pound quarterback on the Ferris State University football team. He played in front of his family on Saturday, Oct. 14 when Ferris played at Grand Valley State University. 

“It says ‘Welcome to the 616’ and that’s where I’m from,” Gulker said, while looking at the banners around the GVSU stadium. “So it was kind of like playing a home game. This is the closest I’ve played to home since high school.”

Gulker was a standout basketball player at Zeeland West. But he isn’t the only Ferris State football player who starred on the hardwood. There are at least nine Grand Rapids area natives on the Bulldogs roster who also played high school basketball.

“I played one time this summer at Zeeland West High School,” Gulker said. “But I play intramurals during the winter for fun. I don’t play a lot though. It’s good to get out there and compete in a different setting. It’s still fun to play.”

Who is the best basketball player on the Ferris football team?

“Tyrese Hunt-Thompson, C.J. (Jefferson) and D.P. (Darius Pruitt) are all really good,” Gulker said. “I don’t know If I could pick the best one of those. They’re all good.”

Hunt-Thompson went to Cassopolis, Jefferson at Muskegon and Pruitt went to Kalamazoo Central. 

Trinidad Chambliss (Forest Hills Northern) and Xavier Wade (West Ottawa) might have had the most team success in high school. 

Chambliss was a senior and starting point guard on the Huskies team that made it to the Division 1 quarterfinals in 2020. 

Wade’s senior year, the Panthers were 25-3 and made it all the way to the Division 1 state title game in 2018. But they lost to Foster Loyer’s Clarkston team.

“Trinidad played with us two years ago,” Gulker said. “He’s good. He’s a dawg. I played against X (Xavier Wade), too.”

The Ferris State football team knows how to recruit some great athletes. They have won back-to-back Division II National Championships. 

Ferris State football players, from left, Trinidad Chambliss, Xavier Wade and Mason Dykstra during pre-game on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2023. (Photos | Lenny Padilla).