The Fairfax Co. Hayfield football team was allowed to participate in the play-offs

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Hayfield Secondary School has been granted a temporary ban allowing them to play in the football postseason.

The Virginia High School League confirmed that an appeal filed by Hayfield's parents in Fairfax County Circuit Court regarding the Hayfield football team's reinstatement in the league's Class 6 Region C football playoffs has been granted.

As a result of this ruling, Region 6C first-round playoff games scheduled for Friday evening will be postponed, according to a press release from the league. The release states the ruling will not affect Friday's first-round playoff games for Region 6A, Region 6B or Region 6D.

The new first round schedule for Region 6C begins on November 21 and is as follows:

• #1 Hayfield vs. #8 Thomas Edison
• #2 Lake Braddock vs. #7 Mount Vernon
• #3 West Springfield vs. #6 South County
• #4 Fairfax vs. #5 West Potomac

A Fairfax County Circuit Court judge ruled in favor of Hayfield on Friday just before 4 p.m. to grant the injunction, which was sought by Hayfield's parents after the Virginia High School League banned the Hawks for two seasons for ” postseason'. A new hearing is scheduled for December 4.

Hayfield High Schoollost his final appeal on November 8to overturn a league-imposed two-year postseason ban in football. The final decision was made by a three-person subcommittee of the Virginia High School League, which heard from both Hayfield and the league via Zoom on Nov. 7 before making a decision.

The hearing took place after the league's Sportsmanship Committee previously denied Hayfield's initial appeal to remain eligible to play in the 2024 and 2025 playoffs.

After the initial appeal was denied, Hayfield had the opportunity to appeal again to a subcommittee. That would be the last step Hayfield could take within the Virginia High School League before the playoffs began.

Hayfield finished 9-1 and was rated No. 1 in Class 6, Region C in the PowerPoint ratings.

In a statement to the families of James W. Robinson High School in FairfaxDirector Tracey Phillips said she was disappointed to learn the Robinson Rams football team would not participate in postseason play after Hayfield was reinstated for the playoff games.

“I sympathize with our players, band, cheerleaders and everyone else who delivered a spectacular experience for our community this fall,” she wrote. “We look forward to cheering for our Rams on the football field next year.”

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.

This summer, the Fairfax County school system investigated whether students from Freedom Overton had been followed to Hayfield and did not live in the Hayfield school district.

After a two-month investigation, Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid announced in August that the Hayfields football program had been cleared of any wrongdoing related to transfers and eligibility.

But the Virginia High School League had launched its own investigation, leading to a two-year postseason ban.

In a letter dated Oct. 29, 2024, addressed to the Virginia High School League's executive committee, league executive director Billy Haun explained why the league is seeking to sanction Hayfield's football team.

The League said it believes Hayfield violated the League's Proselytizing Rule, which states: “No school or group of individuals representing the school shall subject a student of another school to undue influence by to encourage transfers from one school to another for the League. activities.”

Additionally, the letter stated that “VHSL staff also notes that the Hayfield administration failed to adhere to the guiding principle of VHSL policy.”

The Guiding Principle states that “Member schools of the League and their individual and team representatives shall implicitly observe and comply with both the spirit and the letter of all rules and regulations of the League in the interscholastic activities governed by sections 50 to and with 129 of this handbook and in the activities sponsored by a district or region. These rules and regulations apply to anyone representing their school in the VHSL, Inc. sponsored interscholastic competition, whether individual or team, whether varsity, junior varsity or reserve.

The Virginia High School League also said Hayfield's staff failed to uphold the “spirit of all rules and regulations of the League.”

That, in turn, “directly impacted other member schools and student-athletes” in Hayfield, Freedom-Woodbridge and all “student-athletes and communities of VHSL member schools” competing against Hayfield football this season.

Specifically, the league said 15 student-athletes who were on the 2023 Hayfield football roster are either not playing or have transferred to another school and will not be part of the 2024 Hayfield team.

FCPS released a statement on Friday's ruling, saying in part that it “applauds the hard work and dedication of all of our student-athletes during the regular season, and we look forward to supporting all of our postseason competitors in the coming to be applauded for years. a few weeks.”

The statement continued: “FCPS remains committed to working with VHSL and our sister schools to improve the process for determining student-athlete eligibility and to ensure greater clarity in the rules and processes governing the activities of students and athletics in Virginia.”