Anthony Asatrian, the former Bergen Catholic High School wrestler who accused his coach of sexual abuse and harassment, can wrestle again.

In a decision that followed a three-hour hearing on Wednesday, a special panel of state athletic officials rejected efforts by Bergen Catholic to prevent Asatrian, 18, from wrestling this year because he transferred to Paramus High School.

Reached by phone after the decision, Asatrian, known to friends as Tony, called the decision "amazing."

"I get my chance to wrestle. I get my chance to prove myself," Asatrian said. "I'm stoked."

After hearing testimony Wednesday afternoon, the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association's Eligibility Appeals Committee deliberated for nearly 45 minutes behind closed doors at NJSIAA headquarters in Robbinsville. At times, their discussion was so loud voices could be heard from the corridor outside the conference room where officials met.

Steven Goodell, NJSIAA counsel, oversaw the deliberation. He described a "robust discussion."

"We believe it was the right and just decision," said David Eisbrouch, Asatrian's attorney.

Asatrian, who has been ranked as high as No. 2 in his weight class among New Jersey wrestlers, withdrew from Bergen Catholic High School last February, then filed a lawsuit in state Superior Court in which he accused Coach David Bell and others at the elite parochial school of sexual abuse, sexual harassment and sexual assault.

Asatrian, who lives in Paramus, completed his junior year at his hometown public high school after leaving Bergen Catholic. Now a senior and hoping for a college wrestling scholarship, he was planning to wrestle for Paramus High School this season.

But until now, he had been barred from competing.

In most cases, when student athletes transfer to another school, they are required to sit out at least 30 days during the next season before resuming their sport on a new team.

But Bergen Catholic took the added step of asking the NJSIAA, the state's prime governing body for high school sports, to ban Asatrian for the entire season. Bergen Catholic claimed that Asatrian sought an “athletic advantage” by enrolling at Paramus High School.

If successful, Bergen Catholic’s move would have effectively ended Asatrian’s high school wrestling career and probably scuttled any chance he had of a college scholarship.

However, after Wednesday's ruling, Bergen Catholic expressed support for Asatrian.

"The Bergen Catholic community is glad to see the NJSIAA ruling to let Anthony wrestle," said Jim McQueeny, a spokesperson for the school.

McQueeny said that in trying to ban Asatrian from wrestling, Bergen Catholic "followed in best conscience" the criteria that the state sports association established for athletes who transfer to different schools.

"Today they saw fit to rule otherwise," he said.

In a statement that he emailed late Wednesday, Bergen Catholic's President Brian Mahoney said he was "disappointed" in the NJSIAA ruling and continues to "believe that Anthony Asatrian transferred for athletic advantage."

But Mahoney added that "with this eligibility hearing behind us" he hoped that "both Bergen Catholic and Paramus High School can move forward accordingly with their respective wrestling seasons."

Wednesday’s hearing before the NJSIAA was yet another chapter in the increasingly complicated legal web that has enveloped Asatrian.

A cornerstone of Asatrian’s legal claims against Bergen Catholic are 94 text message exchanges — some of them lasting hours — in which Coach Bell frequently expressed his love and other highly personal sentiments to Asatrian.

Bell began sending the personal texts when Asatrian was a 15-year-old freshman and had just been given a new cell phone by his parents. The coach’s last text, in January 2018, arrived shortly before Bergen Catholic officials dismissed Asatrian from the wrestling squad.

Asatrian had kept quiet about the nearly two years' worth of texts from his coach. But after being booted off the Bergen Catholic wrestling team in January after his father, Harry, pushed back against Bell’s series of decisions about his place on the squad, Asatrian told his parents of the texts. They then pulled him from Bergen Catholic, and he enrolled at Paramus High School.

In a series of exclusive interviews last summer, Asatrian told NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY Network New Jersey that he felt he had to leave Bergen Catholic to avoid what he described as a predatory atmosphere of sexual harassment by Bell in the text messages. Asatrian also said that while the text messages made him sexually uncomfortable -- to the point that he questioned his sexual identity -- he nevertheless conceded that his coach never touched him or overtly tried to have a sexual relationship with him.

Since then, Asatrian has changed his story somewhat, largely, he says, after undergoing extensive psychological therapy.

In a 38-page amended lawsuit, filed Friday in Hackensack, Asatrian offered a much more expansive account of his relationship with Bell, claiming that the coach “initiated intimate touching” by arranging one-on-one “practice sessions in abandoned classrooms outside of wrestling practice” at Bergen Catholic. The new court filing also alleges that an assistant coach and several players bullied Asatrian. The lawsuit further claims that several coaches provided alcohol to the Bergen Catholic wrestling squad during a state tournament in 2016.

On Monday, in an extensive statement on the case in response to questions from NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY Network New Jersey, Bergen Catholic dismissed Asatrian’s latest court filing as “new, false allegations” that had “no merit.”

In its statement, the school also termed Asatrian’s initial allegations of sexual abuse and assault — which the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and state child welfare authorities declined to pursue last year, citing a lack of evidence — as “egregiously false.”

For the first time, Bergen Catholic acknowledged that Bell’s text messages to Asatrian “are of a personal nature." But the school said the texts "do not represent predatory behavior.”

More:Former Bergen Catholic wrestler fights for his place on the mat

More:Bergen Catholic seeks ban on former wrestler who accused coach of sexual harassment

More:Wrestler at center of Bergen Catholic sex abuse lawsuit speaks out for the first time

With Wednesday’s NJSIAA ruling, Asatrian will be able to officially compete as a wrestler for Paramus High School, probably as early as next week. He is considered a prime contender for a possible state wrestling championship.

"I'm very happy for Anthony," said Don Roll, the Paramus High School athletic director. "He can get back on the mat where he belongs. He deserves that."

Last year, as a junior at Bergen Catholic, where he was a two-time district champion, he was ranked as the nation’s No. 25 wrestler in the 160-pound weight class by WIN Magazine, a respected publication that keeps tabs on high school and college wrestlers across America. This year, the “Wrestling Full Circle” website ranked Asatrian as the No. 2 160-pound wrestler in New Jersey.

Email: kellym@northjersey.com