Ryan Jung will be allowed to play the 2026 high school football season in Georgia after all. The highly-touted kicking phenom managed to win his appeal with the GHSA.
It was the correct decision!
The top-ranked kicker in high school football transferred from a private school in Florida during the offseason. He is finally cleared to play with less than one week until the first game with his new team.
Ryan Jung is the top kicker in high school football.
If you are not a true football sicko, Ryan Jung is probably not a name for which you are familiar. But you should be! The 17-year-old kicking phenom has one of the coolest backstories in sports right now. He is very easy to root for.
Jung actually spent the first 12 years of his life in South Korea as a soccer player with the goal to play in the World Cup. His path changed in middle school when he moved to the United States and got introduced to football. It quickly became clear that he had a knack for putting the ball between the uprights, which gained the attention of the top kicking trainers in the country. He was named as the top-ranked prospect at his position shortly thereafter.
The 17-year-old received multiple Division I scholarship offers as a sophomore in high school. Jung committed to the University of Michigan on a full scholarship prior to his junior year.
However, his junior year was in jeopardy as of the beginning of August. The Georgia High School Association initially ruled him ineligible for the 2026 high school football season.
Georgia ultimately ruled him eligible to play at Milton in 2026.
Ryan Jung began his high school football career at IMG Academy. His family did not live with him at the Florida boarding school.
Jung’s family recently moved to Georgia. The star kicker decided to make the move with them and enrolled at Milton High School. Classes began on Aug. 3. He is already a few weeks in to his junior year.
And yet, the GHSA initially ruled him ineligible to play high school football because he did not make a “bona fide move.” His family did not move with him from the same address. Jung moved from IMG, his dad moved from Minnesota, his mother and sister moved from Nashville. They all ended up in the Peach State together but from different places.
Therefore, Jung could not play for Milton High School in 2026. He chose to appeal the ruling.
There is a specific exemption in the GHSA bylaws for a student “enrolled in a non-member school in Georgia” who transferred to the GHSA member school that serves his area of residence without a “bona fide move.” The athlete will be made eligible one time in his high school career as long as he “has not yet established eligibility in grades 9-12 at a member school.” Jung, who moved to Georgia for the first time, fell under this rule.
It appears as though the GHSA realized its mistake! It flipped its eligibility ruling after the appeal. Ryan Jung will be allowed to play high school football at Milton in 2026. The Eagles will play their first game — with their star kicker — on Friday.