{"id":99897,"date":"2026-01-14T11:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T11:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/99897\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T11:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T11:46:11","slug":"bp-urges-other-staten-island-youth-leagues-to-ban-bad-apples-following-cyo-crackdown-on-disruptive-spectators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/99897\/","title":{"rendered":"BP urges other Staten Island youth leagues to ban \u2018bad apples,\u2019 following CYO crackdown on disruptive spectators"},"content":{"rendered":"

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Borough President Vito Fossella expressed hope that other youth leagues on Staten Island will institute a similar disciplinary policy for spectators to the one recently implemented by the Catholic Youth Organization.<\/p>\n

Fossella joined CYO officials Tuesday morning to announce a new set of objective rules<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Under this new policy, spectators who are ejected by a referee for disruptive behavior during a CYO basketball game will now face a one-year ban. 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

\"CYO\"Borough President Vito Fossella, Catholic Youth Organization official Tony Navarino and Michael Neely, director of the CYO Staten Island, at a press conference in the Mt. Loretto CYO Community Center gymnasium in Pleasant Plains on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, announce new rules pertaining to parents and spectators engaging in disruptive behavior during CYO games.(Advance\/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel)<\/p>\n

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

Following a press conference announcing the rules, Fossella told the Advance\/SILive.com that officials have considered the possibility of reaching out to other local youth leagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next conversation is to see if these other leagues would step up and sort of institute the same policy that they\u2019ve (CYO) done here,\u201d Fossella said.<\/p>\n

\"CYOBorough President Vito Fossella and Catholic Youth Organization officials at a press conference in the Mt. Loretto CYO Community Center gymnasium in Pleasant Plains on Tuesday, January 13, 2026, announce new rules pertaining to parents and spectators engaging in disruptive behavior during CYO games.(Advance\/SILive.com | Jan Somma-Hammel)<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission is consistent with the mission of CYO and what youth sports should be about: keep the focus on kids with positive experiences, learning life lessons, responsibility, having fun, being a good teammate, being a good friend, failing, learning from your mistakes, practice, getting better; all life lessons,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd our hope is that the handful \u2014 the small handful of people \u2014 that come to a game to disrupt it and disrupt the experience of a child and his or her teammates, will be on notice that that won\u2019t be tolerated and they won\u2019t be able to step into a gymnasium again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fossella\u2019s push for a change in CYO policy came after a video of a struggle<\/a> at a CYO basketball game was posted to social media and sent to the Advance\/SILive.com. 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

That melee resulted in the indefinite suspension of two parents and their relatives who were involved, according to Michael Neely, county director for CYO.<\/p>\n

While the December melee sparked real concern among the community, Fossella said that there has been something of a \u201ctrend\u201d of concerning behavior from spectators in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope this is a way to put the focus back where it belongs, on young children having a good time, learning a skill, learning a sport,\u201d added Fossella. \u201cAnd I would, sort of amplify it, to call out to other leagues \u2014 if they\u2019re willing to collaborate \u2014 that sometimes a bad apple goes to another league, a football \u2014 or a different league altogether. We\u2019d hope perhaps they\u2019d be entertaining a conversation to say \u2018if somebody\u2019s a bad seed or a bad apple in one league, perhaps that person is a bad apple or bad seed in another league,\u2019 to ban that person as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. \u2014 Borough President Vito Fossella expressed hope that other youth leagues on Staten Island will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-99897","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\/99897","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=99897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}