Ferris State Football Head Coach Tony Annese Inducted Into Muskegon Area Sports Hall Of Fame

Pictured is FSU head coach Tony Annese & current assistant coach Jack Schugars, who is also a member of the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame, at Saturday's induction banquet.

Big Rapids, Mich. - Ferris State University football head coach Tony Annese, who led the Bulldogs to a second-straight unbeaten regular season and Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Championship last fall, was officially inducted into the 2016 Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame Class this past Saturday (June 4).

The presentation took place at the Muskegon Country Club where Annese, who ranks as the winningest collegiate coach in the state of Michigan over the past four seasons, joined an elite group of former coaches, players & sports personnel from the West Michigan area already enshrined in the Muskegon Area Sports Hall of Fame, including one of his current FSU assistant coaches and former legendary prep head coach Jack Schugars.

Along with Annese, this year's honorees included former West Michigan area basketball standouts Ken VanDyke and Tanya Place-Hommes along with the late Roy Smith, who was nationally recognized in the sport of horseshoe pitching.

A two-time GLIAC Coach of the Year, Annese added another Hall of Fame honor to his legendary coaching resume and earned the distinction based upon his outstanding run as the head coach at Muskegon High School from 2000-08. He led the Big Reds to three state titles before leaving for his first collegiate position at Grand Rapids Community College.

Annese was the most recognizable name in this year's hall of fame class after posting a 92-15 record in his nine seasons at Muskegon High. The Big Reds won state crowns in 2004, 2006 and 2008 under his direction.

Since his arrival at Ferris State, Annese has turned the Bulldogs into a national power on the Division II level. In the 2015 campaign, he guided FSU to a second consecutive unbeaten regular season and GLIAC Championship as the Bulldogs compiled a perfect 10-0 regular season record. Under Annese's direction, the Bulldogs also received a second-straight NCAA Playoff berth and stretched their regular season winning streak to 25 consecutive games. Ferris State boasted one of the nation's most explosive offenses and was a consensus top-five team in the national rankings most of the year, including the program's highest ever listings in both the D2Football.com (1st) and AFCA (2nd) polls. 

The veteran coach has posted a 37-9 overall mark in four seasons at the FSU helm and has been the mastermind behind a Bulldog turnaround leading to 22 wins in the program's past 24 games overall. He earned GLIAC Coach of the Year laurels for the second year in a row this past fall after also claiming the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Regional Coach of the Year distinction in 2014. FSU claimed its first NCAA Postseason victory in 19 years this past season after recording the first 11-0 regular-season in 100-plus years of Bulldog Football during the historic 2014 run.

Annese, who was previously inducted into the Michigan High School Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame (MHSFCA) in the spring of 2011, took over as head coach at Grand Rapids Community College in 2009 and instantly turned the Raiders into a national junior college power before his FSU arrival. GRCC claimed the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II National Championship under his guidance in both 2009 and 2011 after the program had posted only a 7-11 mark in the two seasons prior to his arrival.

Before taking over at GRCC, Annese established himself as one of the state's premier coaches and a football mastermind in four stops at the prep level. He posted a mark of 195-41 in 22 seasons as a prep head coach at Montrose, Ann Arbor Pioneer, Jenison and Muskegon High Schools while making 15 playoff appearances and five trips to the state semifinals, including three state championships. He was a National High School Athletic Coaches Association Coach of the Year finalist in 2009 and was tabbed as the MHSFCA Coach of the Year in 2004, 2006 and 2008.

Overall, Annese has won 83% of his games as a head coach on the collegiate and prep levels and owns 262 wins to date, which is the most of any current GLIAC member head coach at all levels.