Allegations that Hayfield Secondary School football coaches improperly recruited players could not be substantiated following a monthslong investigation by Fairfax County Public Schools.
During a contentious town hall meeting in the school’s auditorium, Fairfax County Superintendent Michelle Reid told parents and community members the review took over 400 hours and involved the Northern Virginia school district’s human resources department and auditor.
The meeting came months after first-year football coach Darryl Overton was accused of improperly recruiting at least a dozen players from his former school, Freedom High School in Prince William County. It was alleged those students who transferred lied about living in the Hayfield High School pyramid region, and that there was a school employee who was involuntarily transferred to a different county school because they expressed opposition to the transfer and recruiting practices.
Claims of improper recruiting practices
Overton and his staff faced accusations of bullying students, using school system property for personal gain, misusing funds and exceeding the number of training days and restrictions for offseason workouts.
But the investigation, Reid said, didn’t substantiate any of those claims.
“It’s clear that we build community around schools and school activities,” Reid told WTOP. “The allegations that have been made over the last several months have been investigated. They’ve been thoroughly looked at, and they’ve been found to be unsubstantiated.”
As part of the school system’s investigation, 19 people — including principals, parents, directors of student servicers and directors of student activities — were interviewed. Last weekend, Reid said the school system made seven home visits to verify students lived where they said they do. The district stopped by with about 15 minutes of notice, Reid said, and confirmed the students actually lived at those addresses.
The school division hired attorney Cynthia Hudson to go over evidence and do her own legal review, which concluded the allegations were based on rumors, Reid said.
“As a former deputy attorney general for the Commonwealth, she has that skill set to be able to review data and information and make sure that there isn’t something we’ve missed, and also to just really make sure that we’re talking about personnel issues and student-athlete privacy concern issues as well,” Reid said. “It’s important that we make personnel and program decisions not on suspicions and speculation, but on facts as a result of a comprehensive investigation.”
Student residency and eligibility concerns
During Tuesday’s meeting, Reid said there are both residency concerns and eligibility concerns in athletics. Virginia’s High School League handles the eligibility process, and Reid said a student’s eligibility status can fluctuate.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Virginia High School League said the agency doesn’t have investigative powers, and that, “Fairfax County Public Schools have declared these students eligible in the Hayfield situation. A school must self-report any violations. If we receive information regarding residency, we notify the school, just as we did with Hayfield.”
Dawn Love, whose son transferred to Hayfield from Freedom High School and is now on the team, said disgruntled players and parents are at the core of the allegations.
“They, (in) my opinion, did not want to compete,” Love said. “You have to compete to play. This isn’t ‘you’re automatically given a trophy.’ You’ve got to compete to play.”
Another Hayfield parent who attended the meeting but asked not to be named told WTOP there’s “an influx of students coming here. I’m not sure if it’s just for the sports or what, but there are a lot of students here, more students than last year.”
Meanwhile, Fairfax County School Board member Mateo Dunne is calling for an independent investigation into the allegations, suggesting there were “more allegations than you can shake a stick at.”
“FCPS does not have the capacity, the experience, the expertise to conduct a complex, multifaceted investigation of this type,” Dunne said. “We really need to ask an outside law firm or organization to come in (and) conduct an independent, comprehensive investigation.”
When asked about the demand for a private probe, Reid said it’s the reason the school district involved Hudson in its review.
“If there are new allegations or new information about the former allegations that are brought forward, of course, we’re going to investigate those and ask for an independent review again to look at those,” Reid said. “But at this moment, the allegations are unsubstantiated, and the program has my full confidence, barring any new information to the contrary.”
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