Submitted Photo Bishop Ryan running back Jaxon Feller made a verbal commitment to play football for the University of Mary in Bismarck, starting in the fall of 2021.

Jaxon Feller has been playing football for several years. With all of his experience, he was given the opportunity to play running back/linebacker for the University of Mary in Bismarck.

Feller started in the recreation football leagues. The rec leagues stop after sixth grade, so he had to play on a school team from his seventh grade year and beyond.

For his seventh and eighth grade years, he attended and played for Our Redeemer’s Christian School. At that time, the school’s football team was a co-op team with the players out in Berthold.

From his freshman year until now, he has been a varsity running back/linebacker for the Bishop Ryan Catholic School Lions. That particular position is his favorite, as it is one that gets a lot of the physical contact and tackles, along with getting to handle the ball a considerable amount.

Feller said he is really looking forward to playing for UMary in the fall of 2021. So far, he has just made a verbal commitment to UMary, but he intends to sign a National Letter of Intent in February. There are other options available to him, but he is pretty set on the college in Bismarck.

“I just really feel like they have their principles there,” Feller explained. “They genuinely care about you. They have a great strength and conditioning program. I love that their coaches are fun and full of energy, so it’ll be fun to play with them.”

He also described the coaches as being very welcoming and friendly. He had to sit with some of the current UMary football players and he had the opportunity to ask them whatever questions he wanted without the coaches present. The words he used to describe the coaches are also what the current players said about them.

Once he starts his freshman year next fall, his current plan is to major in radiology to be a radiologist, taking x-rays and reading them for his patients.

So far, the only bone he has damaged is in one of his fingertips, fracturing it. He laughed when he said he still played with a fractured distal phalange. He’s definitely got the determination to play football.

“It’s not an easy game,” Feller said. “You got to always give it your all.”

His degree will take him about 10 or 11 years to complete, having to do three initial years in classes and a year in a hospital to do clinicals. The first four or five years will be spent at UMary. After that, he said he will have to transfer to North Dakota State University in Fargo for medical school.

He isn’t dead set on being a radiologist, though. If he decides not to go into radiology, he would like to be a physical therapist or something of the like in the medical field.

University of Mary is a National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) Division II school, so Feller was not given a full ride scholarship to play football. He said he will still have to pay for some of his school tuition after the scholarship amount is taken into account.

His girlfriend is planning on going to UMary as well, but she wants to be a radiology technician.

They will both have to spend their first year or two in the dormitories, per campus policy for freshmen. Feller said he wasn’t entirely sure if that policy extends to sophomores.

One of the upsides to living on the UMary campus is the Crow’s Nest restaurant, which also has a Caribou Coffee shop in it. Feller is a huge coffee fanatic. He was also pretty stoked about the new restaurant called Marauder’s Cove that will be there, which will also have a Caribou Coffee shop.

The Crow’s Nest will be part of his meal plan, and he had the biggest smile on his face when he mentioned that he will have unlimited swipes there. Since the establishment is open 24/7, he can go eat there whenever he wants to.

So far in high school, he already knocked out a dual-credit speech class during his junior year, and he plans to take another dual-credit class next semester to get another class out of the way.

To prepare himself for college and his career in the medical field, he is taking chemistry and pre-calculus, which will allow him to get into a regular calculus class.

Playing football doesn’t take up all of his time. He also plays basketball and baseball for Bishop Ryan. On top of those three sports, he has a loaded school schedule.

So far, he said he has been doing well with his time management skills and is able to get everything done by staying on top of his work.

He will continue those ways when he starts college. In addition, he said that academic advisors will be available for him in Bismarck who can help him keep his grades by checking with him every now and then.

Playing recreational football after his four years at UMary is a possibility, but it will depend on how much of his time his schooling will take. If he has too heavy a workload, he will have to wait for a while before he can start back up again.

If he does not get the chance to play rec, he said he is planning to have children and teach them how to play football, too.

Football is a very important part of Feller’s life, and he plans to continue his time on the field by playing for UMary for four years, hoping to major in radiology. He has a long road ahead of him, but with his incredible amount of determination and drive to succeed, things may go just the way he plans.