FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. — Amid a recruitment scandal, legal decisions, and boycott threats, one highly-ranking high school football team in Alexandria has struggled just to be allowed to play in the district's regional playoffs. Now, the school district has announced the school's principal has withdrawn the team from any postseason play.
The controversy centers around the Hayfield Hawks' recruiting violations. In October, the Virginia High School League, accused Hayfield's coach of recruiting students from outside the Fairfax County Public Schools district, issued a two-year ban on Hayfield on Oct. 29. A ban that parents fought hard to overturn.
While Hayfield parents lost two appeals to lift the ban, they filed an injunction with the Fairfax County Circuit Court, a day before the Virginia regional football playoffs. A circuit court judge decided to allow Hayfield to play on the same day as the scheduled playoff, causing a delay in the playoff schedule.
The decision came with pushback, as some coaches from other schools threatened to boycott the playoff games. The threat ultimately ended after a meeting with Superintendent Reid and Hayfield went on to win its first game against the Edison High School Eagles, 75-7.
"This evenng, the principal of Hayfield Secondary School announced the difficult decision to withdraw the football team from further postseason play," a letter by Fairfax County Public School's Superintendent Michelle Reid reads.
"FCPS can only act on the information that it has, and these messages brought new concerns to the initial investigation," the letter reads.
The texts are between an unknown person and Hayfield Secondary School Student Activities Director Monty Fritts. They appear to discuss bringing in Coach Darryl Overton from Freedom High School in Prince William County to Hayfield.
In one exchange, screenshots show Fritts saying, “I'm thinking of going supervillain and bringing Overton.”
In other messages in January, Fritts said, “My principal really wants Overton.”
The other person responds, “He'll get kids from other schools to play for ya! I'm not sure he'd get away with the same stuff in FCPS.”
Fritts is shown replying, “There would need to be some change but if they are homeless nothing can happen.”
The text messages were first reported by Fairfax County Times, which also had other texts that showed Fritts replying, “True, just better to be homeless.”
"Human resources staff and internal and external counsel reviewed this new evidence, investigated further, and finally concluded that they provided evidence of potential impropriety," Superintendent Reid's letter said. "Today, I shared summary information about the inquiry and the outcome of the inquiry with School Board members."