Hayfield Secondary School, the number the #1 ranked HS football team in their division, were forced to forfeit its second playoff game on Nov. 25, after being involved in multiple lawsuits.
Hayfield was projected to win the championship in their division. Their forfeit allowed Oscar Smith High School to win the championship.
This all started when Hayfield’s athletic director, Monty Fritts, announced that Darryl Overton was Hayfield’s new football coach. Coach Overton led Freedom High School, a high school in Prince William County, to two state championships.
That offseason, 31 players transferred to Hayfield, and at least 14 of them were from Freedom High School. Many people thought that Hayfield was illegally recruiting.
“Public schools aren’t allowed to recruit players,” said Jack Kushin, a 13-year-old on the Majestics. “It should be more spread out. Only private schools could have that much talent.”
Midway through the season, Hayfield was undefeated before it was issued a two-year postseason ban. This led to controversy, as Hayfield’s players’ family members rushed to their defense.
A judge soon ruled in favor of Hayfield. FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid went on an independent investigation, and she also ruled that Hayfield didn’t do any wrongdoing. They were admitted back into the postseason without any wrongdoing, before later being forced to forfeit in the playoffs.
Owen Pellerin, a 13-year-old on the Majestics, spoke about how he views Hayfield as cheaters.
“I used to think of them as a normal good team, but now they are cheaters. [They are] similar to the Astros,” Owen said.
Mrs. Sharri Clifford, a history teacher for the Trailblazers, disagreed with Owen, saying that she doesn’t think they cheated.
“I think it’s very complicated because it sounds like the players followed the rules that are laid out for transfer, they took advantage of some loopholes and some loosely worded guidelines and were able to recruit students,” Mrs. Clifford said.
Mrs. Clifford was a cheerleader for Hylton High School, who made the state championship once in her time there. She also went to many Westfield High School games because her oldest son was in their marching band.
Eli Cheung-Nguyen, 7, Dream Team, said that it isn’t fun for opposing high schools to get beaten by so much.
Hayfield finished their season with a record of 9-1. This included a 48-7 victory over West Springfield, a 65-0 win over Annandale, a 70-0 blowout over Chantilly, 63-0 annihilation over South County, a huge win over Falls Church 65-0, a 70-6 domination over Edison, a 51-0 enormous victory over Mount Vernon, 69-0 rumble over Justice, and a 63-0 boom over Lewis.
“If you are winning by that much, it is very bad of them and they are making the games unpleasant and uncompetitive,” said Eli. “I see them as cheaters, but one act does not define an organization.”
Out of the seven other coaches whose team made the playoffs (in the same division as Hayfield), six coaches met with Superintendent Michelle Reid, threatening to forfeit from the playoffs if Hayfield wasn’t disqualified. Hayfield wasn’t disqualified, but none of the coaches forfeited.
In Hayfield’s first playoff game, they played Edison. They destroyed Edison 75-7. This game raised protests from High School football fans.
Not long after this happened, Athletic Director Monty Fritts announced that he is taking a personal leave of absence for possibly two years. He stated that the reason was that his wife got a job overseas. It was soon found that he was involved in all of the “illegal recruiting.”
Hayfield was forced to forfeit their second playoff game after texts between Fritts and Hayfield principal Darin Thompson were revealed. It was shown that Fritts was the one that brought Coach Overton to the school. Fritts was also shown to come up with the idea of Fritts using the federal homeless student benefits rule to get students to Hayfield to play football.
“Recruiting people from somewhere else and saying that they are homeless is pretty wild,” said Owen.
