Extra year of eligibility results in local student-athletes having tough decisions

When the NCAA’s Division I Council opted to grant all spring athletes an extra year of eligibility to give them back this season lost to the COVID-19 outbreak, it was going to have an impact on a huge swath of collegians and the incoming freshman now finishing high school.
It's not exactly going to produce a ledger of winners and losers, but that impact will be felt in many different ways by various athletes. Newsday took a look at some of the implications through the eyes of Long Island’s athletes at colleges and high schools.
Rich Ciufo Jr. (Medford), Brown University
When the extra year of eligibility was granted, Ciufo said he “was relieved.” The senior shortstop was a dozen games into his final season and batting a team-best .333 with a linger of hope of being a late-round pick in Major League Baseball’s first-year player draft.
The Ivy League was far ahead of other conferences and the rest of the NCAA is shutting down sports, but that early sting soon became confusion. Ciufo wanted to keep playing and hoped for the extra year but also knew graduate students aren’t permitted on Ivy rosters. He put his name in the transfer portal not knowing if that had a chance.
Then in a flurry of activity he got a job offer in Manhattan, a couple of coaches that expressed interest in his transfer if it became possible and then finally Monday’s decision by the NCAA.
“The NCAA did the right thing, but it gets a little complicated now,” he said in a telephone interview. “There are coaches that tell you they’ll take a certain number of transfers. There are coaches that specifically will say they need a shortstop.”
The other factor is he will have to be enrolled in a grad school and, for that, he’ll need a baseball program with some scholarship money available.
“The coaches know my whole situation,” he said. “But I am looking at recruiting lists and depth charts at some programs. . . . I’ll go in with a mindset to earn a starting job if I get the right fit.”
Johnny Castagnozzi, Massapequa High School
Castagnozzi, a senior who committed to North Carolina, believes the impact on him will be relatively minimal, but said, “it could have a huge impact across the sport. Rosters for different teams could be different sizes. Kids could decide they want to come back, but find out they aren’t going to play as much; returning players develop and there could be freshmen who are better.”
Current Tar Heels and incoming recruits have been in constant contact with head coach Mike Fox and associate head coach Scott Forbes, Castagnozzi said. Some of their roster management is still to be determined, but he added “I expect to be competing to be the starting shortstop, but I could be asked to play another position as a freshman.”
Jake Lazzaro (Oceanside), St. John’s University

St. John's Jake Lazzaro plays the infield during an NCAA baseball game against Georgia State on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020, in Decatur, Ga. Credit: AP/John Amis
Lazzaro was off to a hot start as St. John’s freshman starting shortstop. The Red Storm had played 14 non-conference games when the NCAA pulled the plug on the spring season because of the coronavirus pandemic. He’d made 13 starts at short, batting .327 with 10 runs scored and three stolen bases in three attempts.
He sees the Division I Council’s decision to offer all athletes in spring sports an additional year of eligibility as potentially “impacting me later on with regard to my hopes and dreams of being drafted.”
As the Major League Baseball first-year player draft has existed, a player who goes to a four-year college can be drafted at age 21 or after three years. Lazzaro said that with all athletes being offered the extra year of eligibility when he first becomes eligible to be drafted “there will be kids who have gotten to play a year or two more than me, that are older and had a chance to grow bigger and stronger over that time.”
MLB’s changes to the draft because of the pandemic – the current most-likely scenario is that it is five rounds instead of 40 – could leave even more kids who might have been drafted to get an extra year to improve.
Robert McGee Jr., Shoreham-Wading River High School
McGee, a senior, has committed to play lacrosse at Penn State. His father, Robert McGee Sr., said they are in regular contact with the program, but there are a lot of unknowns and “this decision by the NCAA changes the dynamic of every class in college. It stymies the incoming freshmen for a year because now they’re somewhat and in some cases behind four classes of athletes. Positions that were available to be contested are now in question because there’s more competition.”
He and Robert Jr. are in on a group text with all the incoming recruits but are keeping options open – including prep school – to be prepared as the current Nittany Lion seniors decide what they will do. “It’s a day-by-day thing,” Robert Jr. said, “and the obvious preference is to just go to Penn State. I am prepared to fight to earn my spot.”
“Not everyone is Brennan O’Neill,” Robert Sr. said of St. Anthony’s star senior. “When he steps on the field as a freshman at Duke, he’s going to play. He’s the top recruit in the country. That’s why they call him Zion - the Zion Williamson of high school lacrosse.”
He added that the current Penn State seniors bear watching because if a senior envisions falling on the depth chart “you’re probably getting a job.”
Matt Brown-Eiring, Connetquot High School
Brown-Eiring, a senior third baseman and pitcher, is committed to Stony Brook. He has enough confidence to believe that no matter who on the Seawolves current roster stays or goes, he only has to let the coaching staff glimpse his capabilities to play.
But he is seeing the changes at the NCAA level differently – a raft of recruiters from prep schools want him to come for a year and have been calling his father, Christian.
“My Dad spoke with me about the possibility of attending a prep school for a year because it looks like we lost my senior year of baseball,” Brown-Eiring said. “I know it’s a letdown, but that’s out of my control. I feel really bad for all my friends who are not committed in their senior year and even worse for the juniors because this is their showcase season. And as far as a prep school? I told my dad no way. I am ready for the college experience.”