{"id":98998,"date":"2026-01-13T18:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/98998\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T18:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T18:32:09","slug":"weeks-after-melee-staten-island-officials-announce-new-rules-for-spectators-at-youth-basketball-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/98998\/","title":{"rendered":"Weeks after melee, Staten Island officials announce new rules for spectators at youth basketball games"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 There are new rules in place for spectators who attend Catholic Youth Organization basketball games.<\/p>\n

Those spectators who are ejected by a referee for disruptive behavior during a CYO basketball game will now face a one-year ban. <\/p>\n

If that same individual commits a repeat violation, they will be hit with a lifetime ban.<\/p>\n

Moreover, any spectator who engages in a physical altercation at a CYO game will face a lifetime ban and never be able to attend another CYO competition.<\/p>\n

Previously, each disciplinary matter would be handled on a case-by-case basis and CYO would handle each matter individually.<\/p>\n

Borough President Vito Fossella announced the new policy alongside Catholic Youth Organization officials at the Mt. Loretto CYO Community Center gymnasium in Pleasant Plains on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe mission was about the kids,\u201d Fossella, whose children played CYO basketball, said. \u201cThe mission was about teaching them responsibility. The mission was about them having a good time: the kids. The kids are the center of this universe here. And every once in a while some spectators get out of control and ruin it for the kids and ruin it for everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new policy comes less than a month after the Advance\/SILive.com reported on an altercation that broke out during a Catholic Youth Organization basketball game.<\/p>\n

A video of the struggle<\/a> posted to social media was sent to the Advance\/SILive.com after the brawl. The courtside fight broke out among adults just after 9:20 p.m. on Dec. 20, in the gymnasium of St. Teresa\u2019s in Castleton Corners.<\/p>\n

While the melee began between two women, others joined in the fray in an attempt to split the two apart.<\/p>\n

According to Michael Neely, county director for CYO, the two women were parents and some of those who further got involved were their families.<\/p>\n

Those two women, including the family members involved in the fight, have been suspended indefinitely from attending CYO games, Neely explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a very important message and I appreciate his [Fossella\u2019s] input on this,\u201d Neely said. \u201cHe\u2019s been front and center with me for the last couple of weeks, kinda trying to talk me off the ledge a little bit, but it\u2019s pretty upsetting and I really want to publicly thank him and his staff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 There are new rules in place for spectators who attend Catholic Youth Organization basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-98998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}