Update, October 10: the brothers’ season is over unless an appeals court steps in. On Friday, October 9, Judge Logan denied the preliminary injunction and dissolved the restraining order that had covered them since September 25, the Repository’s Tim Botos reported. Because the association ruled them ineligible on September 28, that ruling effectively sidelines both for the rest of 2026. In his 22-page decision, Logan accepted the association’s view that the family moved to Massillon after deciding the brothers would transfer there, which rules out the residence exception they sought, and found they came to court before taking the internal appeal the association had offered. “The court is sympathetic to the student-athletes involved,” he wrote. Hours later, Plakas asked the 5th District Court of Appeals in Canton to restore their eligibility at once. Appeals Judge William Hoffman gave the association until October 15 to respond and set a tentative hearing for October 22, two days before Massillon plays McKinley. That night Massillon lost for the first time this season, 35-21 to Cornerstone Christian, according to MaxPreps.
Update, October 6: the brothers’ eligibility will not be decided until Friday. After an all-day preliminary injunction hearing in Stark County Common Pleas Court on Tuesday, visiting Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County separated the Feisters’ case from the other transfers, the Repository’s Tim Botos reported. Logan will rule on the brothers on Friday, October 9, the day after both sides file written closing arguments and the same day Massillon hosts Cornerstone Christian of San Antonio. Gary Yeager, Micah Walker and Dey’Veair Adams stay covered by the restraining order until the association rules on each of them, so four of the six, Williams included, can play Friday. Plakas said he will keep making the brothers’ case in his written closing. The story below ran on October 5, before the hearing.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association has ruled Brayton and Brydon Feister ineligible for the second half of Massillon Washington’s season. The Canton Repository’s Tim Botos reported it on Monday, October 5, from a 29-page response the association filed in Stark County Common Pleas Court on October 2. Whether either brother plays again this fall now runs through a preliminary injunction hearing set for 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Both are on this site’s radar for Ohio State reasons. Brayton Feister, a senior linebacker, is the 2027 four-star who committed to Oregon on August 14 with Ohio State in his final four. Brydon, a junior the Repository lists as a 6-foot-4, 240-pound defensive end, holds an Ohio State offer. cleveland.com’s Andrew Gillis reported on January 30 that linebackers coach James Laurinaitis extended it, and Eleven Warriors’ Dan Hope listed him on September 25 among the 2028 edge rushers expected at Ohio Stadium for Illinois, writing that Brydon “seems to be giving the Buckeyes a serious look in his junior season at Massillon.”
What the association says
The families of six Massillon transfers went to court in September, alleging the association had dragged its feet on their eligibility. Their attorney, Lee Plakas, won a temporary restraining order on September 25, the Repository reported, and it made all six eligible for that night’s win over a team from Canada.
The association’s filing answers that order, and in it the OHSAA says it has ruled on three of the six. It denied the Feisters’ transfer exception on September 28, USA TODAY’s Alex Martin reported. OHSAA attorney Joshua Fraley gave the reason in one sentence: “The evidence demonstrated that the move did not compel the transfer; rather, the desire to transfer compelled the move.” The brothers came to Massillon from Archbishop Hoban in Akron.
Fraley also wrote that the two “were offered an expedited appeal hearing on October 2, 2026, and have not pursued it,” and he argued the case does not belong in court yet: “Plaintiffs have not exhausted their administrative remedies, and their request for judicial intervention is premature.” Plakas has put the families’ side bluntly. “We’re trying to drag the Association literally kicking and screaming into 2026,” he told the Repository.
The third ruling went the other way. Da’Shaun Williams, a junior tight end who transferred from Euclid, was cleared for the entire season. The other three cases are still pending. Fraley wrote that the families, not the association, caused the holdup by waiting, and that “each of these applications were submitted between six weeks and nearly four months after the family’s move.”
What Tuesday decides
The Repository reports that the restraining order’s effects “could be extended, canceled or modified” at the October 6 hearing. Massillon is unbeaten on the field: its MaxPreps page, read Monday night, shows six wins, and On3’s Andy Villamarzo reports the Tigers at 6-0 with Cornerstone Christian of Texas next. That game is at home on Friday, October 9. Massillon did not play last Friday because Farrell cancelled the October 2 game in September, as WFMJ’s Dana Balash reported at the time.
One number from Monday needs a note. The Repository wrote that, off the field, Massillon is “1-2 with three contests pending.” That is its tally of the six rulings, one cleared, two denied and three still open, and its next sentence says the OHSAA has ruled on three of them. USA TODAY’s write-up read the line as the team’s official record. No outlet this site read on Monday names a forfeited game, and MaxPreps still shows six wins.
Ohio State’s three names at Massillon
The cleveland.com list of Ohio State’s recent offers on January 30 carried three names who are now Massillon teammates: the two Feisters, then still at Hoban, and Deontay Malone, already at Massillon Washington. Malone committed to Ohio State on June 14 and is still in the class. The Repository and USA TODAY both name all six players in the case, and he is not one of them.
For Brayton, Monday’s reporting changes nothing on the 2027 board. The Repository still describes him as verbally committed to Oregon, and his row stays with the men who chose elsewhere on the commit board. Brydon has no row on the 2028 board, which is built from pledges. This site will report what Tuesday’s hearing decides as soon as an outlet does.
