Hayfield's football coach denies the recruiting allegations and claims the team is being targeted

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. (7News) For the first time since the controversy surrounding Hayfield Secondary School's football team took over the conversation this playoff season, head football coach Darryl Overton spoke with 7News and addressed the allegations of illegal recruiting against the Alexandria school's leaders.

The Virginia High School League (VHSL) banned Hayfield from the playoffs for two years after their investigation revealed alleged recruiting violations. It is against the governing body's rules for public school officials to convince student-athletes to transfer solely to play a sport.

RELATED | VHSL finds that Hayfield administrators were aware of controversial football transfers: Court Docs

Overton told 7News he has not recruited any student-athletes who transferred to Hayfield prior to the school year and football season.

“There's no mention of me recruiting anyone. That wasn't mentioned by VHSL. They didn't say I recruited anyone. They just said it happened,” Overton said. “No matter how VHSL came up with this, there is no evidence that anyone is recruiting. That's just something everyone says. Again, they don't mention that I'm recruiting anyone, not one person. We didn't play ineligible players. Every player was approved by the VHSL, every player.”

VHSL focused its investigation on the 14 players Overton coached at Freedom High School in Woodbridge, Virginia, who followed him to Hayfield. Members of the Fairfax County School Board revealed that a total of 31 football players had transferred, with just over half coming from other schools in the region.

READ MORE | 'We were all just shocked': Student athletes affected by the Hayfield tragedy speak out

7News asked Overton for his response to people who saw the number of football players transferring to his new program and believed it was the result of illegal recruitment.

“Why does this mean that there has been some recruitment because someone decided to move to one of these schools around here? Were the kids who left Hayfield recruited to go to South County and West Springfield?” said Overton. 'Were they recruited? Why did they go to those schools? Why didn't they go to Lewis? Why didn't they go to Edison, schools that are five minutes away?'

Just hours before the play-offs were due to start without Hayfield in them, a judge ruled that the ban should be suspended and the school was reinstated into their group. As a result, VHSL had to postpone matches and implement a reduced schedule. Robinson Secondary School, the last team to qualify, was eliminated from the play-offs without playing a match, returning Hayfield to the top of the rankings.

The judge set a court date of December 4, exactly one week after the time of publication, to hear more arguments in the case.

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Hayfield played their first round playoff game, a matchup they won convincingly by a score of 75-7 against Thomas Edison High School.

However, the investigation into the allegations against Hayfield came to a head over a 48-hour period this week.

On Sunday, the Fairfax County Times reported receiving text messages from Hayfield athletic director Monty Fritts that seemed to suggest that some transfer players are homeless so they could be eligible to play for the school immediately.

RELATED | Hayfield withdraws from postseason football amid recruiting investigation: FCPS

Hayfield withdrew from the playoffs on Monday and Fritts informed officials on Tuesday that he will resign effective December 2.

“The messages were from before I was ever hired. That had nothing to do with me, had nothing to do with us. I love Mr. Fritts to death. Whatever he and whoever he texted and joked about had nothing to do with us – me or anyone on the football team,” Overton said.

Despite the end of Hayfield's season, the saga will continue to play out in court.

Parents of some of the team's transfer players filed the lawsuit that led to the judge temporarily suspending the school's playoff ban.

Attorneys on both sides of the lawsuit, the parents and VHSL, have filed their arguments detailing the lead-up to the events of the past two weeks.

RELATED | Hayfield's athletic director has been forced to resign due to football player eligibility issues

VHSL's attorney stated in these court documents that the director of Overton, Fritts and Hayfield all gave conflicting testimony to their investigators as to who was aware of the transfers moving to Hayfield, claiming that this was an attempt to deliberately to mislead. The lawsuit also revealed that the first transfers occurred before the start of the spring sports season, with some student-athletes competing for Hayfield's track and field team, but they were ineligible and the school self-reported the violation.

According to the VHSL lawyer, these actions constituted a violation of the transfer rule because they indicated to other players that Hayfield would accommodate them and allow them to adjust quickly.

VHSL's attorney also argued that they were unable to verify some of the new addresses of the transferring players, with some players splitting time between one home in Fairfax County and another home in Prince William County. The court documents also revealed that some parents of the student-athletes showed six-month leases, which may have violated VHSL's transfer rule, which states that families moving to school districts “must be done with the intent that it be permanent '.

Meanwhile, the Hayfield parents' attorney argued that VHSL never provided concrete evidence of the recruitment and that the governing body “concluded that Hayfield had somehow violated their rules,” going on to state that “the decision of VHSL is incorrect, fatally procedurally flawed and lacking “a rational basis, and inconsistent with its own requirements.”

The parents' attorney also stated that VHSL had initially approved all transfers and that Fairfax County Public Schools had verified all of their new addresses.

Although the judge stayed the play-off ban, the court order states that this decision does not reflect whether or not he believes illegal recruitment occurred.

In the meantime, Overton told 7News he is disappointed his student-athletes have drawn the ire of critics.

“I feel like no one cares about embarrassing our kids, our school, not just me, during this whole process,” Overton said. “The bottom line is that people don't like the fact that people have moved to Hayfield [Secondary School].”

Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid, announced she will authorize an outside investigation into all student-athlete transfers at all schools in the district.

She also stated in a letter to parents that she was made aware of Fritts' text messages during a meeting with coaches of Hayfield playoff football teams, which took place after they threatened to forfeit games if the play off ban was not observed. Those coaches ultimately decided to play.

7News On Your Side requested an interview with Reid and sent the following questions:

1. Was Dr. Reid aware of the concerning text messages Monty Fritts sent before last week's meeting with the other coaches?
2. Why did Dr. Didn't Reid share these text messages with the public before another outlet reported them?
3. Will the school district take disciplinary action against Hayfield's principal, athletic director, football coaches and/or student-athletes?
4. Will the school district suspend or dismiss any of the above?
5. When does the external investigation start?

A spokesperson said Reid was out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday but would check when she returned Monday.

In August, Fairfax County School Board member Mateo Dunne proposed an outside investigation into Hayfield's allegations, but it was rejected by an 8-3 vote.

The following school board members voted against Dunne's August motion calling for an outside investigation:

1. Kyle McDaniel
2. Rachna Sizemore Heizer
3. Robyn Dame
4. Marcia St. John-Cunning
5. Melanie K. Meren
6. Karl Frisch
7. Sandy Anderson
8. See Dixit

7News On Your Side approached all these members last Thursday and asked them the following questions:

1. Why did you vote against an external investigation in August?
2. Do you now support the external investigation? If so, what has changed since August?
3. Do you regret not having an external investigation done sooner?

No one has responded, even almost a week later.