A week after Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid withdrew Hayfield Secondary’s highly scrutinized football team from the playoffs, the school division is still investigating troubling text messages that led to the school athletic director’s resignation.
A week after Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid withdrew Hayfield Secondary School’s highly scrutinized football team from the playoffs, the school division is still investigating troubling text messages that led to the school athletic director’s resignation.
The situation, Reid said, is still an active personnel matter, and the district’s Human Resources Department is still looking into the circumstances. While Hayfield coach Darryl Overton and Principal Darin Thompson are remaining in their roles, Reid said Monday “it is possible that further personnel action will be taken” as the investigation continues.
Last week, Reid announced the decision to take Hayfield out of the playoffs, citing “troubling” messages from then-athletic director Monty Fritts.
The messages described exploiting a possible housing loophole to help players transfer. Fritts ultimately resigned from his role, effective Monday. The withdrawal marked the latest development in the controversy surrounding Hayfield’s football program as the school has been accused of violating recruiting rules since the spring.
A school system investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing, but the Virginia High School League handed down a two-year postseason ban. However, a judge struck down that ban two weeks later, allowing Hayfield to participate in its first playoff game, which resulted in a win over Thomas Edison High.
But, the new information the school division received prompted it to take action, Reid said.
“Essentially, I want the community to know that we are not going to tolerate cheating, and we’re going to create rules that emphasize sportsmanship and integrity and ensure that each and every student-athlete has that world-class experience here,” Reid told WTOP.
Reid says school system will enforce ‘very clear rules’
Last Tuesday, Reid met with several high school football coaches. They wrote a letter threatening to boycott the postseason if Hayfield was allowed to participate.
During that meeting, Reid said she first learned of those messages from Fritts and asked the coaches to forward them to senior personnel. Staff received them Wednesday, and they were provided to HR and internal and external counsel.
The HR department also did staff interviews, which, along with the texts, “raised serious questions about possible improprieties, and we felt at that point it was best to have Hayfield withdraw from the playoffs,” Reid said.
Asked why Hayfield was allowed to participate in the first playoff game once those messages were revealed, Reid said it took time to conduct interviews and make sure they were authentic. The interviews were finished Monday morning, after Hayfield’s Thursday playoff victory, Reid said.
In an interview with WTOP news partner 7News, Overton, who serves as the head coach, denied recruiting allegations. The program has been scrutinized ever since many student-athletes from other schools transferred to Hayfield in the spring.
Now, Virginia’s largest school division is planning an external investigation into transfer procedures and protocols across all sports and schools, “just to make sure that we don’t have a circumstance like this arise again,” Reid said.
Currently, staff are creating the criteria “the external law firm will have to be responsive to,” she said. Once that’s finished, that probe will begin.
Until the text messages surfaced, Reid said the school system hadn’t received any new information about the football program.
“One way that we can avoid this circumstance from occurring again is having very clear rules around student-athlete transfers and eligibility as well as recruiting,” Reid said. “Our systems for accountability in this area could definitely use improvement.”
Reid is planning to make the results of the external review public.
“I believe that trust is earned through actions,” Reid said. “And I think we can say a lot of different things this afternoon to provide assurances, but judge us by the work moving forward.”
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