There’s no rational eligibility standard that can be applied to a public high school athlete charged with attempted murder. But in New York City’s Public Schools Athletic League, you’re allowed to suit up and play as long as your grades and attendance are up to snuff.
Grand Street Campus of Brooklyn won Sunday’s PSAL City Conference Championship 28-26 at Yankee Stadium and wouldn’t have got the W without leaning on a ball carrier who likely faces serious jail time by the time next year’s city title is settled.
It’s not clear who tipped them off, but NY1 broke the story. Grand Street star running back Rahmel Ashby has been forced to make bail twice in the last 18 months after two separate serious incidents which should have kept him off the football field. He’s charged with firing a gun into a crowd in Fort Greene in May 2014. Three people were struck and injured. And then while awaiting trial on attempted murder charges in that case, he was caught five weeks ago with a gun he had no legal right to carry. I know we’re tough stuff here in the big city, but we’re talking about a high school kid playing on an undefeated football team and nobody from his school or the PSAL had the sense to deny Ashby the privilege of participating in athletics?
And then – when the lid got blown off the school’s ruse – how can both Grand Street’s athletic director Johnny Chavez in concert with the PSAL close ranks and let the kid play? What possibly could lead one to believe presumption of innocence is the proper course after the second bust for packing heat?
I mean, you can understand why Grand Street’s coach Bruce Eugene wants Ashby to play despite the young man’s more pressing life concerns. Ashby (pictured above running the ball on Sunday in the title game) is a great player. He’s elusive and fast. He certainly doesn’t need a gun to run. And Grand Street would not have won its first city title on Sunday without him. Ashby gave Grand Street’s offense great balance with a legitimate ground threat. Grand Street’s QB Sharif Harris-Legree set up the pass with heavy doses of Ashby who moved up the field most effectively to the left side.
But at this level – or in any league really – Ashby cannot be allowed to participate. It’s embarrassing to the PSAL and Grand Street Campus that he was out there. Even the NFL would have found a way to keep him at home.
It seems outrageous. Especially in a week with so much discussion about gun madness.
Most disconcerting to me is that Julian Garcia of the Daily News tried to get the other side of this story and was met with a whole lot of stonewall. Garcia wrote that he called Eugene for comment and the Grand Street coach hung up on him. Garcia also reached out to two top PSAL officials and neither returned e-mails.
At some point in the next couple days you’d think the Mayor – or perhaps schools Chancellor Carmen Farina will be asked to explain how this went down under their watch.
It’s too bad, but the focus in the papers the next couple days may be on Ashby when Harris-Legree (pictured above) should have been the story. He’s so accurate with his throws – and so composed. Legree would seem likely to enjoy a bright career at the next level.
This game was played at Yankee Stadium. It’s a really cool venue for this event but only if you’re willing to jump through the hoops necessary to gain entry. First, the PSAL makes you apply for a ticket during a limited time window and then they ask you to pick up your ducat at an out-of-the-way office just off the East River on the Queens side. After fulfilling the initial e-mail query approval process to gain clearance to attend the game, I took the train and made the hike over to PSAL HQ and signed three separate clipboards at desks manned by needless city government bureaucrats to finally get handed a free ticket.
The PSAL is so freaked out about the scrums outside the hoops title game at MSG more than a decade ago and can’t stage a big game without going overboard on the restrictions.
At the venue Sunday morning, members of the city’s school safety patrol yelled at young attendees who jumped redundant barriers at the entrances. Supporters for the two schools were completely barred from mingling. The sun beamed bright on the Erasmus Hall side. It was cold on the Grand Street section. If you were neutral – like me – and assigned to the Grand Street side – you were stuck. I don’t know. It seems like the PSAL always expects trouble when there’s none to be had.
The PSAL really should get a clue and let people go to public high school games unencumbered and without undue restrictions. Let TSR and some pals run the PSAL for less than what this crew is burning through and I can personally guarantee New York City will have a better public school athletics program by a mile.
I’d say there were probably 6500 in the house for the game. Both sides had mascots. Only Erasmus had a cheerleading squad. Free game programs were distributed at the door. The P-A announcer was bad, misidentifying players and mischaracterizing penalties.
When the sound system played No Sleep ’til Brooklyn during a first half timeout, the crowd (almost all from Brooklyn) paid no attention to the song.