This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
Hayfield Secondary School has lost its final appeal to overturn a two-year postseason ban in football.
The final decision was made by a three-person Virginia High School League (VHSL) subcommittee, which heard from both Hayfield and the league Thursday via Zoom before rendering its decision.
The hearing took place after the league’s Sportsmanship Committee earlier this week denied Hayfield’s initial appeal to remain eligible to compete in the playoffs for 2024 and 2025. The Sportsmanship Committee heard that appeal Monday.
Once the initial appeal was denied, Hayfield had the option of appealing once more to a subcommittee. This was the final step Hayfield could take within the Virginia High School League before the playoffs begin.
In a statement obtained by WTOP, representatives for Hayfield Secondary School through FCPS said they are “disappointed” with the decision by the VHSL and stands by the fact that all Hayfield Football student-athletes met all eligibility requirements.
“Prior to the start of the 2024 football season, the school and school division took many steps to ensure only eligible athletes would represent Hayfield on the football field,” FCPS said in a statement. “FCPS focused its investigation on personnel matters related to establishing student athlete residency. Residency is established for the purposes of attending school. Over the summer, a third-party review, conducted by former Virginia Chief Deputy Attorney General Cynthia Hudson, found no trace of student-athlete recruitment violations.”
The league is scheduled to release the regional first-round playoff pairings Sunday. The postseason begins Nov. 15-16.
“VHSL approved athletic eligibility for each and every student athlete that competed on the Hayfield SS football team this season. Only players deemed eligible by VHSL played football this season,” Hayfield Secondary School said in a statement.
Hayfield’s football team is currently 8-1 and rated No. 1 in Class 6, Region C in the latest league power point ratings. Based on regular season results, the ratings determine the top eight teams that qualify for the playoffs from each region. Hayfield closes out its regular season Friday at John R. Lewis.
In a verified letter that is circulating on social media that is dated Oct. 29, 2024, and addressed to the Virginia High School League’s executive committee, VHSL executive director Billy Haun explained why the league is seeking to sanction Hayfield’s football team.
“VHSL is responsible for approving athletic eligibility for transferring student athletes,” Hayfield Secondary School said in a statement. “Given the attention that the number of student athlete transfers had received, the Hayfield Secondary School staff in August, took the extra step to meet with VHSL and review each student athlete’s eligibility prior to their placement on the official Master Eligibility List list that was submitted and approved by VHSL.”
The league said it believes Hayfield violated the league’s Proselytizing Rule, which states, “No member school or group of individuals representing the school shall subject a student from another school to undue influence by encouraging him/her to transfer from one school to another for League activities.”
In addition, the letter stated the “VHSL staff also finds that the Hayfield administration did not adhere to the Guiding Principle of VHSL policy.”
The Guiding Principle states that “League member schools and their individual and team representatives are required to observe and comply implicitly with both the spirit and the letter of all League rules and regulations in those interscholastic activities regulated by Sections 50 through 129 of this Handbook and in those activities sponsored by a district or a region. These rules and regulations are applicable to all who represent their schools in VHSL, Inc. sponsored interscholastic competition, whether individual or team, whether varsity, junior varsity or reserve.”
The Virginia High School League also said Hayfield staff failed to uphold the “spirit of all League rules and regulations.”
That, in turn, “directly affected other member schools and student athletes” at Hayfield, Freedom-Woodbridge and any “student-athletes and communities of VHSL member schools” who competed against Hayfield football this season.
In particular, the league said 15 students-athletes who were on the 2023 Hayfield football roster “are either not playing or have transferred to a different school and are not part of the 2024 Hayfield team.”
The letter went on to explain the impact on Freedom in Woodbridge.
With a young and inexperienced roster, the Eagles only fielded a varsity team and played just six games this season. The letter said only eight players are back from last season’s state championship team and that the entire program only had 50 players in it, which included just two seniors. “Of the thirty-six players eligible to return to Freedom for the 2024 season, twenty-eight are no longer playing for Freedom.”
As a result, the letter adds: “The students and community at Freedom HS have been disadvantaged.”
Questions have swirled around the Hayfield team since it hired former Freedom-Woodbridge football coach Darryl Overton in February. Overton led Freedom to the last two Class 6 state championships.
Haun’s letter said that in early March the Virginia High School League and Fairfax County “began receiving accusations of Hayfield recruiting football players form Freedom High School.”
This summer, the Fairfax County school system investigated whether students from Freedom had followed Overton to Hayfield and were not living in Hayfield’s school district.
After a two-month investigation, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid in August announced Hayfield’s football program had been cleared of any wrongdoing regarding transfers and eligibility.
But the Virginia High School League, the principal sanctioning organization for interscholastic athletic competition among public high schools in the Commonwealth, began its own investigation after Fairfax County Public Schools cleared Hayfield.
As a result of that investigation, the league “determined the inactions of the Hayfield administration in April to adequately address the eligibility of the transfer students, the school not following VHSL protocols and policies for District appeals, and nine of these ineligible transfer students being included on the Hayfield FY2024 Outdoor Track Master Eligibility List encouraged the number of students transferring to Hayfield to continue.”
The letter then states: “In all there have been fourteen transfers from Freedom HS, five from private schools, and five pre-ninth grade students enrolled.”
