In a nearly empty gym not far from his family’s home in Paramus last week, Anthony Asatrian was practicing his wrestling moves.

For now, practicing is all he can do.

Asatrian’s athletic future has been in bureaucratic limbo since he filed an explosive lawsuit last year accusing his wrestling coach at Bergen Catholic High School of sexual abuse and harassment. Now he is fighting back against Bergen Catholic's efforts to bar him from wrestling for his new team at Paramus High School during his senior year, and thereby scuttling any chance he might have at a college scholarship.

Bergen Catholic, which runs an elite, nationally ranked wrestling program, claims that Asatrian sought an “athletic advantage” by transferring to the less prestigious wrestling squad at Paramus High School and therefore should be banned from the sport for the remainder of this year.

Asatrian, 18, who remains one of the state’s top-ranked wrestlers despite not having competed in a high school match for nearly a year, says he left Bergen Catholic because he says he was sexually harassed by its coach, David Bell.

Asatrian’s attorneys further claim that Bergen Catholic’s effort to ban him this year is little more than an underhanded attempt to force Asatrian to drop his lawsuit. Bergen Catholic counters that it is following state sports rules on the eligibility of athletes who switch schools.

A hearing on Asatrian’s wrestling eligibility is scheduled to take place Wednesday afternoon in Robbinsville before the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, the governing body for state high school sports.

If he wins, Asatrian, whose friends call him Tony, could be back on the wrestling mats and competing for Paramus High School by next week. If he loses, he will be forced to sit out the remainder of this year’s wrestling season, including the prestigious state championships, which attract college scouts with scholarship offers.

But no matter the outcome, Asatrian faces yet another arduous battle — in the courts.

The hearing on Wednesday — behind closed doors before the athletic association's eligibility committee — is the latest chapter in a highly charged legal struggle that still has no clear end in sight.

When he filed his lawsuit last year in Superior Court in Hackensack, Asatrian ignited the equivalent of a legal firestorm between his lawyers and those representing Bergen Catholic and Bell that has since evolved into a torrent of escalating claims and counterclaims from the two sides.

On Friday, Asatrian’s lawyers filed a 38-page amended lawsuit with several new allegations, among them a claim that Bell “initiated intimate touching” by setting up one-on-one “practice sessions in abandoned classrooms outside of wrestling practice” at Bergen Catholic.

The amended lawsuit 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.”

Bergen Catholic said it “stands by its notation” that Asatrian sought a “competitive advantage” in transferring to Paramus High School and therefore should be barred from competing for the remainder of his senior year.

“The school, in consultation with its legal counsel, will pursue all legal remedies to protect the institution’s reputation,” the statement said.

Bell, through his attorney, Sean Pena, declined a separate request for comment.

In his own recent countersuit, Bell denied that he harassed, abused or assaulted Asatrian or any other student. He went on to accuse Asatrian and his father, Harry, of making racist statements, and he alleged that Harry Asatrian, a Paramus-based immigration lawyer, attempted to manipulate scales used to weigh wrestlers to give his son a competitive advantage.

In the court filing, Bell, for the first time, also offered a glimpse into how the case has taken a toll on himself and his family.

Bell's suit says he “feared for his and his family’s safety and believed Harry Asatrian would try to harm him.” The ordeal of being accused of a sexual crime has caused “extreme emotional distress,” resulting in insomnia as well as an “inability to eat, inability to have a romantic relationship with his wife, anxiety, stress and fear to leave home,” his countersuit says.

MORE:Bergen Catholic wrestling coach David Bell files lawsuit against former wrestler

In an interview, Harry Asatrian denied that he had made racist statements or tried to manipulate a scale to help his son. “This is another example of them saying and doing anything to muddy the waters,” he said.

In a separate interview, Tony Asatrian said he would continue to stand by his claim that his coach took advantage of him because of their close bond. He said he feels additional pressure to wrestle well if he regains his eligibility, given the national attention his legal case has generated in high school wrestling circles.

"It gets stressful at times," he said, "knowing that I’m under a microscope."

Two years of text exchanges

A pillar of Asatrian’s case continues to be 94 text-message exchanges, sent over a period of nearly two years, in which Bell expressed his love for the wrestler, among other highly personal sentiments.

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

MORE:Judge denies Bergen Catholic subpoena to force testimony by The Record columnists

The text messages — some of which go back and forth for hours — were first disclosed last August by NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey. As part of its examination of the text messages, the Network interviewed Asatrian and his parents for nearly eight hours in a variety of separate sessions.

In November, Asatrian and his lawyers showed up with Bergen Catholic’s lawyers at the NJSIAA offices in Robbinsville for an eligibility hearing. But the athletic association postponed the hearing to allow both sides to discuss a legal settlement.

Those negotiations quickly broke down, both sides say.

At issue was a demand by Bergen Catholic — and by Bell — for Asatrian and his family to apologize for filing false allegations. The Asatrians, in turn, continued to ask that Bell be investigated, citing the impact his text messages had on their son.

The conflicting demands underscore the competing narratives of this case.

Loyal Bergen Catholic alumni have rallied behind Bell and school officials, claiming in social media posts and other forums that Asatrian was a failed athlete who could not keep his place on the elite wrestling team. A few months after Asatrian filed his lawsuit in early 2018, Bergen Catholic gave Bell its “educator of the year” award.

In its statement on Monday, Bergen Catholic for the first time disclosed that its administration, “in consultation with its legal counsel," had reviewed "the text messages that are part of this case.” The statement did not say whether the review included all of Bell’s texts or just those mentioned in the lawsuit.

Unlike many other schools — and numerous national coaching organizations — Bergen Catholic does not have a policy that prohibits teachers and coaches from sending texts to students without copying their parents.

“Like many other schools looking to catch up with the growing role of technology in daily communication, Bergen Catholic is building on its basic employee social media/technology policy to build a new and stronger policy that governs the interactions and communications between faculty/staff and students,” the school said in its statement.

Regarding the texts that Bell sent to Asatrian, the school added: “The opinion of Bergen Catholic, and its legal counsel, is that the text messages in question are of a personal nature, but do not represent predatory behavior.”

MORE:Bergen Catholic wrestling coach David Bell called a great mentor, teacher by grads

New details emerged after therapy, lawyers say

In what may emerge as yet another controversial element in the case, Asatrian’s legal team said the newest details in the amended lawsuit were revealed during “ongoing intensive therapy” in recent months in which Asatrian was able to “recall, digest and unravel additional experiences” about his experiences at Bergen Catholic.

Psychologists say it’s not uncommon for abuse victims — especially young people — to bury the details of their experiences. Over time, some details emerge, but only after extensive therapy, psychologists say.

On Monday, one of Asatrian’s lawyers, David Eisbrouch, said he plans to present a report from Asatrian’s psychologist on the extent and impact of the alleged sexual harassment at the hearing on Wednesday. Another member of Asatrian’s legal team, Ari Schneider, also said Monday that he expects Asatrian to personally outline his claim of sexual harassment in testimony before the eligibility committee.

NJSIAA officials have ruled in favor of athletes who asked to transfer after claiming they had been bullied. But the Asatrian case is the first in which the state athletic association has been forced to rule on a question of sexual harassment.

Meanwhile, Bergen Catholic has hired Jim McQueeny, a politically connected public relations consultant with ties to Gov. Phil Murphy and other influential figures in New Jersey and national politics. McQueeny's son graduated from Bergen Catholic. His wife, Mary Amoroso, a Democrat and a former television journalist who once worked as a reporter for The Record, is now a Bergen County freeholder.

The move to hire McQueeny appears to underscore how seriously Bergen Catholic is taking Asatrian's allegations — and their potential long-term impact on the school’s image.

At the same time, Paramus High School has embraced Asatrian.

Don Roll, Paramus High School's athletic director, said Asatrian has the talent to be a state champion — if he’s allowed to wrestle. Roll said Bergen Catholic was wrong to try to ban Asatrian from wrestling for his new high school.

“We’re in the business of kids. That’s why we come into education,” Roll said. “At this point, Anthony only has a month and a half of his wrestling career. And they’re trying to hold him back.”

For now, Tony Asatrian says he plans to work on his wrestling moves each day.

On a recent afternoon, Asatrian, clad in gray sweat pants and a gray Paramus Wrestling T-shirt, went through a series of wrestling moves with a friend, Joseph Trovato, 21, a former scholarship wrestler for the University of Pittsburgh.

Afterward, Asatrian wiped the sweat from his forehead and said it felt good to go through even an informal wrestling workout as he awaits his fate before state athletic officials.

“I’m just hoping to get back on the mat,” he said. “That’s my only concern. My lawyers have their concerns. But I just want to wrestle.”

Email: kellym@northjersey.com