High School Football Team Is Back In The State Playoffs [video]

A stay has been issued on postseason ban of the Wayne Hills football team and the players at the center of the controversy, Hunter and Tyler Hayek, may play in any remaining games, the acting commissioner of the State Department of Education ordered Thursday.

Ronald J. Ricci, a lawyer representing one of the players, said Kimberly Harrington stayed the proceedings until a hearing could be held where the players could present "evidence concerning their residency status."

The district appealed to the state following the NJSIAA’s ruling the top-seeded team banned from postseason play because the brothers played for the Patriots all season despite not producing a bona fide change-of-address form, the NJSIAA, the state's governing body over high school sports, said Tuesday.

The Patriots regain the No. 1 seed, but the game against eighth seed Northern Highlands may not be played on Friday as originally scheduled.

Harrington said in her order that the NJSIAA's ruling banning the boys, and their younger brother, Jaaron, from playing football "was procedurally flawed as the students were not afforded any due process." (A copy of the order is at the bottom of this article.)

Also, Harrington said, there was "not sufficient credible evidence in the record to serve as a basis" for the NJSIAA's decision.

Harrington's order temporarily bans the NJSIAA from declaring any of the Hayek boys ineligible to participate in football.

"The NJSIAA will abide by the commissioner’s ruling, which was based on a due process issue," said Steven J. Timko, NJSIAA executive director. "The NJSIAA believes it appropriately enforced the association’s rules and reserves the right to hold future hearings related to the students’ eligibility in all those sports in which they participate. If those hearings determine the players to be ineligible, the outcome of all games in which the students participated – including those this weekend -- and the potential for future games could be impacted."

Not everyone was happy about the announcement.

One Twitter user called the players "cheaters" and said the whole thing was a "scam."

The district self-reported the violation to the NJSIAA Monday and the ban was announced Tuesday. Superintendent Mark Toback said the district called the state after "additional information" to the district.

RELATED: Wayne Hills Football Team Disqualified From State Tournament

Toback did not explain what the "additional information" was, where it came from, or why now, more than one year and nearly an entire season after the boys came to the school, officials were told about it.

The NJSIAA ruled that the entire team — 63 players — be ruled out of the playoffs, not just the three Hayek brothers. Parents and district officials sought a "fair and equitable solution," on behalf of the remaining 60 players.

Darren Del Sardo, the attorney representing the Hayek boys, said in a previous report, that his clients live in Wayne and have not moved. He also said his clients are allowed to live in two homes.

Vic Hayek previously said that all the necessary paperwork regarding his sons' transferring to Wayne Hills was properly filed with the district. The brothers transferred to the school in October 2015.

Hayek said in an NJ.com report that “we did everything we were supposed to do, the correct way."

Video of parents shouting at Toback during a closed-door meeting regarding whether or not the district would appeal the state's decision to ban the team surfaced.

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