By the end of the first quarter, it was clear the Edison Eagles had no shot at beating the Hayfield Hawks. Forget the home-field advantage and the seedings. The Eagles had no chance against a team featuring former Freedom Eagles from Woodbridge and fellow DMV All-Stars who wore Hayfield’s orange and black uniforms.
The game scores 34-0 after 12 minutes of play, 75-0 at the half, and 75-7 at the final. That’s not a misprint. The NFL once had a championship game that ended 73-0 as the final score. The College Football Playoff National Championship once saw a 62-7 final score. By this game’s end, Edison managed a single touchdown, partly due to the Hawks pulling their starters in the second half and going forward with a running clock. The statement had been made by then, and the damage was done.
Meanwhile, across northern Virginia, other playoff games took place due to a judge in Fairfax County Circuit Court's decision last week to reinstate Hayfield into the playoffs. This eliminated Robinson Secondary School from postseason play and placed Hayfield back on top of the 6C region.
With this win, the Hawks will host the Fairfax Lions next, while the West Springfield Spartans go to Burke to take on the Lake Braddock Bruins. All four will be back on the gridiron on Tuesday. The two winners will square off in the Region C title game on Nov. 30, and the winner earns a berth in the VHSL 6A state semifinals against the Region D Champion on Dec. 7.
For context, compare Hayfield’s thrashing of Edison to the other scores of the night. The 75-7 demolition of Edison can be described with one word—humiliation, evidenced by a jaw-dropping 10.7:1 scoring ratio that’s enough to convince casuals that it was a disaster. The gap was so broad it eclipsed Lake Braddock’s commanding 56-6 victory over Mt. Vernon, which had a 9.3:1 ratio. In contrast to West Springfield’s 41-12 win over South County, with a 3.4:1 ratio, and Fairfax’s narrow 29-19 triumph over West Potomac, with a 1.5:1, Hayfield simply put their foot on the gas and never let off until their message was delivered—overwhelming firepower on offense and an intimidating presence on defense. Edison had no room to fly while the Hawks soared with ease.
“Welp…season’s done. And honestly, I'm proud of our program,” an Edison assistant coach said on X following the game. “We knew this would be a trying year; graduating a lot of SRs [seniors] who were all-district and all-region performers has that effect. We all knew we would have to turn it up, fight even harder, and have an unshakable resolve.”
FCPS confirms Hayfield athletic director is leaving
Since the Fairfax County Times broke the news of the alleged recruiting scandal at the school in June, the football team has faced national scrutiny, and national and local media outlets are reporting on the story.
On Thursday, the Fairfax County Times reported that Hayfield’s director of student activities, Monty Fritts, has asked for a leave of absence of as much as two years amidst a recruiting controversy that has plagued the school for the past nine months since Fritts and Hayfield Principal Darin Thompson hired Darryl Overton, a coach from Freedom High School in Prince William County, to be the school’s head coach. The director of student activities, or “DSA,” as they are called, acts as the athletic director at schools.
In an investigation, the Virginia High School League, which governs sports in public high schools in the state, alleges in court documents that the three school officials have engaged in a “cover-up” about the inappropriate recruitment of players from Freedom and other schools.
FCPS spokeswoman Julie Allen has now confirmed that Fritts has requested a leave of absence. In a statement, Allen said, “Mr. Fritts has been the Director of Student Activities at Hayfield Secondary School since the start of the 2023-24 school year and continues to serve in that role. At his request, we can share that last week Mr. Fritts submitted a request for a leave of absence in order to join his family in an opportunity overseas. That request is being reviewed as part of our normal, defined leave of absence process which supports our employees in family circumstances such as this.”
Daniel Drickey, hired in August 2022, is the assistant director of student activities. FCPS didn’t state whether Drickey would take over as the director of student activities when Fritts leaves.
In more upheaval at Hayfield, as the Fairfax County Times reported earlier this year, an FCPS assistant superintendent, Michelle Boyd, and the school principal, Thompson, involuntarily transferred Erin Crowley, the Hayfield director of student services – who oversees counseling – to Annandale High School over concerns she was raising the issue about the new football transfers. Crowley, a beloved staffer, is a Hayfield graduate and has been raising her family in the school district so that her children could also graduate from her alma mater, said people familiar with the situation. They said the new commute to Annandale is a lengthy one.
Thompson and Boyd brought in Erik Healey from Annandale to replace Crowley as the new Hayfield director of student services. However, that move was short-lived, as Healey announced this week to colleagues that he is “heading to Centreville High School” to be principal, with his final day at Hayfield on Nov. 26.
He announced that Ghil Hong, a Hayfield counselor, “will be serving as Interim Director of Student Services.” It isn’t clear if Crowley will be allowed to return to Hayfield.
Hayfield grad: ‘Embarrassing’ game
The controversy has also marred alumni's relationships with their alma mater. When Brittany Wieland, 25, a Class of 2017 Hayfield graduate who played softball at Lawrence Technological University in Louisville, Ky., walked toward the football field with a friend, a fellow Hayfield graduate, she had a choice to make: sit on the Edison side, where she coaches softball, or the Hayfield side, which she said she would prefer to be as an alumnus.
The Hayfield graduates chose to sit in the bleachers at the 50-yard line – on the Edison side.
“I’m truly ashamed at how Hayfield has conducted themselves in this situation,” Wieland said. “It’s sad to say, but we don’t want to be associated with it.”
The two Hayfield graduates left at halftime. “I didn’t find it fun to watch,” Weiland told the Fairfax County Times afterward.
Later at home, seeing the 75-7 blowout, Weiland posted a scorching rebuke of FCPS and Hayfield leaders on social media, writing, “As a Hayfield alumni who went on to play college sports and now coaches at the high school level, this whole situation is disheartening, sickening, and embarrassing. Excuse me while I lecture for a minute, but I passionately feel the need to protect our sports community.”
She continued, “The corruption of youth athletics is damaging to the entire local sports community and something that everyone must condemn. I struggle to understand how any parent, coach, or educator can sit by and enable such a poisonous and selfish series of events.”
“In regard to the alleged corruption, I encourage everyone to do their research and use their common sense,” said Wieland. “But beyond that, to play in such a manner that demoralizes and embarrasses your opponents is spineless and does absolutely nothing for the development of the players.”
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