State Committee To Determine Football Brothers' Eligibility Status Tuesday

WAYNE, N.J. — A state committee will meet Tuesday to determine the eligibility status of Tyler and Hunter Hayek and possibly modify the state group tournament seeds and schedule, the NJSIAA announced Friday.

The meeting is the culmination of a weeklong controversy involving the two Wayne Hills players and the team, which the association said was banned from the postseason because the brothers played all year without filing a bona fide change of address form.

The association's Eligibility Appeals Committee, which consists of five members of the NJSIAA Executive Committee, will meet Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the association's headquarters in Robbinsville, said Steven Timko, the association's executive director.

The committee will determine the boys' eligibility status and provide due process required by the acting commissioner of the state Department of Education, who issued a binding order on the case Thursday.

All parties may be represented by counsel, witnesses sworn, testimony taken, and cross-examination will be provided, the association said in a statement Friday.

As of now, top-seeded Wayne Hills is scheduled to play its first-round game next Saturday at 1 p.m. The teams, seeded one through eight, are: Wayne Hills, Irvington, Wayne Valley, West Morris Central, Fair Lawn, Morris Knolls, Randolph, and Roxbury.

Pending the outcome of the hearing, seeding, dates, and game times may change, Timko said.

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The controversy began Tuesday when the district and state announced the Wayne Hills varsity team was banned from the postseason after local officials learned that Tyler, Hunter, and Jaaron Hayek played the entire season without filing change of address forms.

District officials reported the violations to the NJSIAA, the state's governing body on high school sports, who disqualified the team and took away its eight wins.

The district, players, and parents appealed to the state Department of Education and a stay was placed on the ban and the Hayek brothers' suspensions.

RELATED: High School Football Team Is Back In The State Playoffs

Kimberly Harrington, the acting commissioner of the State Department of Education, ordered the NJSIAA hold the hearing so the players could present their evidence. She said in her order that the decision to disqualify the team and punish the brothers "was procedurally flawed" because the students were not granted due process.

Vic Hayek has said in previous reports that he did nothing wrong and that the family did "everything we were supposed to do," NJ.com reported.

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