Massillon’s Brayton and Brydon Feister are still waiting to learn whether they’ll be allowed to keep playing.
Brayton, a Massillon (Ohio) athlete and the No. 10 player in Ohio’s Class of 2027 according to 247Sports, committed to Oregon on Aug. 14. His younger brother, Brydon, also listed as an athlete, is Ohio’s No. 24 player in the Class of 2028 and already has offers from Ohio State, Georgia, Michigan, Indiana, Oregon and several other programs.
The issue now isn’t their talent. It’s eligibility.
According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer earlier this week, “Four of Massillon's six football transfers who had their eligibility held up after Week 5 by the Ohio High School Athletic Association have been cleared to play by a judge in Stark County Common Pleas Court. Two who were already deemed ineligible by the OHSAA - Oregon commit Brayton Feister and brother Brydon Feister - remain in limbo after an all-day hearing Tuesday, according to the Canton Repository.”
There’s no dispute that the Feister family bought a home in Massillon. The fight is over whether that move fits an exception to the OHSAA transfer rule.
The OHSAA says a legitimate move alone doesn’t solve the problem if the relocation was made for athletic reasons. In its court filing, the association put it this way: “The move did not compel the transfer; rather, the desire to transfer compelled the move.”
The brothers transferred from Akron Hoban. After Brydon won his second state wrestling title as a sophomore, a disciplinary issue surfaced with Hoban.
The OHSAA says their father, Bo Feister, then looked into possible landing spots at Big Walnut, Wadsworth, Walsh Jesuit and Canton McKinley before the boys ended up at Massillon. The Feisters reject that account and say they were already considering the Massillon house before the Hoban disciplinary situation came up.
For now, the case is in a judge’s hands. The OHSAA has ruled Brayton and Brydon ineligible, and the family is asking the court to stop that ruling from being enforced. A decision is expected Friday.
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