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By Drew Budd
Three different judges decided in the past month that New York State Public High School Athletic Association rules need not apply here in Suffolk County.
In an unprecedented set of actions, in three very separate and unique circumstances, each student-athlete, or group of student-athletes — none of them from the East End — had their suspensions lifted by a county judge.
What kicked it all off was when six Northport wrestlers — Peyton Hamada, Ryan Muller, Tyler Naughton, Lucas Rivera, Sebastian Stabile and Kingston Strouse — were ruled ineligible for the postseason after they had competed in seven tournaments this season, when the maximum number allowed is six, according to NYSPHSAA.
Northport, to its credit, made Section XI, the governing body of Suffolk County high school athletics, aware of its own infraction and tried to appeal the decision with a letter from its superintendent, David Moyer, to Betty A. Rosa, the New York State commissioner of education, who informed the school that they would need to pursue a lawsuit in State Supreme Court.
After the six wrestlers and their families raised $8,500 via a GoFundMe page to pay for legal expenses, according to Newsday, a special court proceeding was held at the Riverhead courthouse on February 7, when Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice Peter R. McGreevy granted a stay in the case, essentially lifting the suspensions of all the wrestlers, which allowed them to compete in postseason tournaments.
Hamada went on to win a county championship and placed sixth in the state, while others earned All-County honors.
The second instance occurred later in February, when Commack High School senior guard Sofia Vasselman was called for two intentional fouls in a basketball game earlier this season. Two intentional fouls in the same game by the same player forces an automatic ejection from the game, and, according to NYSPHSAA rules, any ejection comes with an automatic one-game suspension — which would have held her out of Commack’s first playoff game.
Vasselman petitioned for a temporary restraining order, and it was granted by Suffolk State Supreme Court Justice C. Stephen Hackeling on February 24 at the Riverhead Courthouse, allowing Vasselman to be eligible for the playoffs.
The third most recent occurrence was when William Floyd senior Zariel Macchia was ruled ineligible for the rest of the indoor track and field season after violating a rule that prohibits high school athletes from competing against college athletes. She ran in the Boston University David Hemery Valentine Invitational on February 22.
Macchia specifically violated what is called the “College Rule” in the NYSPHSAA handbook. It states that public high school athletes are not allowed to “participate in practice or competition with or against any individual or team representing a college” at any time during a sport’s season. Had her opponents run unaffiliated, or unattached or independent of a college, she would not have been in violation of the rule.
In another Newsday article, Zariel’s father, Pete Macchia, had said he reached out to the lawyers who represented the six Northport High School wrestlers, and eventually, on March 4, filed a lawsuit in Suffolk County Supreme Court challenging the state’s decision. The Macchias and their representation said the state’s decision “was arbitrary and capricious,” and the athlete said that if the “court declines to order the temporary immediate relief, I will suffer irreparable harm, which cannot be remedied at a later date.”
Judge Christopher Modelewski handed down the decision in a special court proceeding at the Riverhead Courthouse on March 6, just two days before the New York State Indoor Track and Field Championships, that lifted the ineligibility, which allowed Macchia to run.
After hearing all the testimony, the judge sided with Macchia and decided that she did not have knowledge of the rule she violated, adding that there was “no question” the suspension would cause Macchia irreparable harm because of the name, image and likeness opportunities she could receive in college.
Macchia — who is one of the most decorated runners in Long Island history and added another medal to her trophy case on Saturday, when she won the 3,000-meter race — is set to run for Brigham Young University in Utah.
I have nothing against these student-athletes whatsoever — from all accounts, they’re upstanding citizens in their own right — and I harbor no animosity for the sheer fact that they were able to compete in their tournaments, games and meets.
That said, I do have major concerns and a number of questions on this matter.
One of my first concerns was the fact that, instead of accepting the fact that they had committed the infractions, parents and coaches instead said, how do we get around this?
As a father of two young daughters now, I can appreciate the fact that they were trying to do right by their sons and/or daughters. But do we, as parents, try to do too much? Should we really celebrate that these rules — which, by the way, are longstanding state rules, which the county abides by — are overturned? What does that teach student-athletes? Maybe the fact that if you fight hard enough you can get your desired outcome — but how about following the rules in the first place?
Are some of the rules silly? I could see a strong case set forth by the Macchia family, where running in a meet with both college and high school athletes shouldn’t be of much concern to anyone. But rules are put in place for a reason, and I’m sure the state has good reason to explicitly not have their high school athletes run in college meets.
In the case of the six wrestlers, competing in an additional tournament, even though it was only one, could certainly give them a leg up on their competition, based on the fact that in one tournament they could get anywhere from three to five additional matches; anyone who knows wrestling, especially at the high school level, knows that the more matches you get, the more you’ve seen, the more experienced you are — and that is whole reason that rule exists: So one wrestler doesn’t get more time on the mat than others.
And, in the case of Sofia Vasselman, intentional fouls are a part of the game — they happen. Ejections happen as well.
In fact, Section XI Executive Director Tom Combs is quoted in the Newsday article about Vasselman’s case as saying that the automatic one-game suspensions rule after any ejection has been followed to a t for years. “That is illustrated by the 155 ejections between the fall of 2024 and the winter of 2025, where players, coaches and fans who were ejected were suspended for the next contest,” he told Newsday. “And if it were the final contest of the season then the offender was suspended for the first contest of the following season.”
To me — and, again, nothing against Vasselman here; she, like all the other athletes, went about the appeals process like they’re allowed to do — this was the most egregious overturn of them all, simply based on the fact that fouls and ejections are so commonplace.
This sets a terrible precedent here in Suffolk County. If I’m an athlete, I’m thinking: Where can I skate the rules here in the spring, or whenever the next season is? Because, hey, if they can have their cases put in front of a judge that quickly and have them overturned, I’ll bet I can, too.
And, you know what? Who would be able to say the kids are at fault for doing that now, after three separate judges ruled in the favor of the athletes?
Why are these cases even being brought in front of a judge in the first place? Does the county or state not have an in-house appeals process? Do they not have a committee to hear and rule on such cases?
I thought they did, but when someone like Betty A. Rosa, the New York State commissioner of education, is telling these parties to get their case in front of a judge, and they do that, successfully, it seems like there isn’t.
And that may be the crux of this issue. Should judges even be ruling on the state of high school athletics? In my opinion, no. Maybe they should be the very last voice, as sort of an Appellate Division after a case is heard by Section XI or NYPHSAA officials. But they shouldn’t be the first, and, it seems, only, option.
I would not be surprised to see more cases like this pop up in the future here in Suffolk County. It’s apparent that it’s the Wild, Wild West out here. Or, when looking at the rest of the state, the Wild Wild East — and I’m sure state officials are calling it that.
Drew Budd is the sports editor for The Express News Group.
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