Anyone with any insight to what’s going on down there?

Talk they might be banned from playoffs and have to give up last year’s state title.

It’s kinda hush-hush what they are actually accused of, though.

Massillon is doing it, so we will punish Ironton.

So private high schools in Ohio can recruit players and offer scholarships but Ironton can't recruit?

Bizarre times.

Looks like a player sued the OHSAA looking to get eligibility restored, was granted a temporary restraining order, so the OHSAA might just shut the whole program down in retaliation.

https://www.ohsfbmedia.com/2025/10/ohsaa-sued-by-family-o...

The injunction was overturned and Ironton played the kid anyway. Family court filing provided evidence against their own case.

The story is fascinating and it has such far reaching implications. What sounds like fake addresses, nothing registered with the Auditor's office. Payments made, something like 22 players from out of Ohio. All that said they essentially got a slap on the wrist. No playoffs one season, nothing vacated from the past win wise and a $7500 fine. The losers here was region 19 in D5. Portsmouth loses to Ironton and jumps from 12 to 5 as they are awarded a win over a 9-1 team with some quality wins.
The entire region got flipped. Teams lose a home game in round 1. Big story but the punishment isn't that terribly bad all things considered.

All I know is that when I was a freshman and we scrimmaged ironton, I was the 135# tight end and their defensive end across from me was about 250. It wasn’t pretty.

He ended up in the NFL by the way.

Yep

Didn’t graduate college college, quit after a Junior (academic standards), played semi pro football before he got an opportunity. Graduated from Ironton, gifted to graduate. Good person, but yeah would be the shortest crayon in the box of 64. Until Bob Lutz arrived in 1972 from St Joe, Ironton was somewhat irrelevant. Back in the day, Ironton was the typical River industrial town and had jobs where you could “take care of folks” with jobs and housing. Ironton is a shell of itself and there are no jobs today. The family that filed the injunction (after the school failed to file paperwork), left a Zillow estimate $580k home for nothing and was renting that house for $600 a month to the oldest son while the “family” went from a 5,800 sqft home to 700sqft. And the other transfers all signed a lease on the same day.

No doubt it’s been going on for years, no doubt it goes on other places. But few people file a court injunction using a fake address and then I’m sure back in the day you didn’t get the “digital” receipts like you have today.

This saga has several layers, because the other layer is the current coach and AD turned their back on an IRONTON legend who started at OSU and wanted to coach his son in Jr Hight BBK, and didn’t get the job. He’d been helping with football for several years and had all the receipts. Then, he’s helping jr High Football and turns in a coach who is soliciting money for “players needs”. Yet that money was not going anywhere but his pocket. So this person turned him in and the whistle blower got dismissed and he was the one fired. So when he got the opportunity, he provided a MOUNTAIN of text and emails about contacts that step by step showed how to avoid being caught.

Not taking anything from Coach Bruney, but Lutz and his record speaks for itself. When he retired was the iwinninest coach in Ohio History and top 5 in the nation. I appreciate your affection to Bruney, but Ironton football is Bob Lutz, his black Pny shoes and the multiple State Final appearances, with two titles and 4 runner ups, and back in the day with 3 divisions and his last title coming in 1989 with 5 divisions. And if he ever embraced a kicking game he’d have 4 titles. End of the day, can’t argue with the man’s numbers, even what he was doing at St Joe before Ironton.