This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
The Virginia High School League has banned Hayfield High School’s football team from the 2024 and 2025 postseasons, according to a source deeply familiar with the situation.
Hayfield has appealed the decision, though, and a Virginia High School League committee is scheduled to hear the appeal Nov. 4.
A spokesperson for Fairfax County Public Schools told InsideNoVa, “Hayfield Secondary School continues to work closely with the Virginia High School League and we have no further updates at this time.”
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.
The first round of the regional playoffs is scheduled to begin the weekend of Nov. 15-16. The regular season ends Nov. 8.
Questions have swirled around the Hayfield team since it hired former Freedom-Woodbridge football coach Darryl Overton earlier this year. Overton led Freedom to two successive Class 6 state championships.
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 following a two-month investigation.
But the Virginia High School League, the principal sanctioning organization for interscholastic athletic competition among public high schools in the state, has the authority to conduct its own separate investigation.
Officials with the Virginia High School League did not wish to comment on the matter.
