Rollie and Marie Ferris have hosted numerous exchange students over the years and there are certain characteristics they look for when selecting them.
"You are looking into students that fit your family," Rollie Ferris said. "Your circle of friends, the circles that you like to do so we have always tried hard to get athletic kids that would help enhance our kids in athletics and in school and as a person."
Rollie played football at Central Michigan, their oldest son Tyden was a starter for the Chippewas on the offensive line last fall. Bernhard Raimann fit right in with the family when he arrived over six years ago.
"It was cool to have another guy in the house," Tyden Ferris said. "Another friend that I could hang out with and he was really compatible with me, we did everything together. That was just really fun to have another best friend that lives with me in house just doing everything with him all the time."
"The two of them have fed off each other in the most competitive, yet positive way since the moment Bernhard got here," Marie Ferris said. "They have pushed each other and competed in ways that I couldn't even have imagined happening."
When Raimann arrived to live with the Ferris family he was almost a hundred pounds lighter than he is now and used his versatility to make an impact on the Delton Kellogg football team.
"Bernhard is being looked at as an offensive lineman but he had the most picks as a DB at high school here," Rollie said. "He's played almost every position I think almost on the field except for, he's not the best at throwing so he never did quarterback."
Now, Raimann is one of the top offensive lineman available in the NFL Draft.
Peter King has Raimann going 21st to the New England Patriots in the first round of his latest mock draft.
No matter what happens, the Ferris family believes Raimann will shine.
"He is going to work as hard as anybody in the locker room to help that team," Rollie said. "Whoever takes the chance with him and says let's this young man an opportunity, they are going to be happy."
"I agree ten thousand percent," Marie added. "He is going to rise to the occasion and he will put everything into this."
"He's just got that mental attitude and desire to be great," Tyden said. "He wants it, he wants it with everything that he's got and I know he's got the discipline and the motivation to not only want it but to make it happen."
The NFL draft starts Thursday night at 7 p.m. with the first round and continue Friday with the second and third rounds before wrapping up with round four through seven on Saturday.
