West Po will take the field in their first playoff game of the year Thursday, November 21 at Fairfax, but that wasn’t how the playoffs were supposed to start. Last Friday evening, only a few hours before West Potomac’s football team was set to play their first playoff game against South County, a Fairfax County judge granted Hayfield a temporary injunction on their two year ban from the postseason. This injunction suddenly placed Hayfield back in the playoffs and forced FCPS to cancel all Friday games, including the West Po v. South County game. A followup hearing on the injunction won’t be held until December 4th and Hayfield will be allowed to play in all games until then.
Hayfield’s football program has been mired in controversy for the past year as their new head coach Darryl Overton has been accused of illegally bringing in players from other school districts, including his former high school, to join the team. Many core players in Hayfield’s starting lineup are transfers and have caused the team to quickly become one of the best in the region.
However, many whistleblower complaints led the Virginia High School Sports League (VHSL) to conduct an investigation into the transfers that concluded Hayfield had violated their rules. VHSL came to this decision after their investigation found that many of the transfers did not meet their residency requirements and decided to ban Hayfield from participating in postseason games for two years.
Former Wolverines football coach, current director of football operations and storied announcer Rob LaGow says VHSL is responsible for all of the confusion over the transfers, “I put the blame at the feet of VHSL because they are not uniform in applying the rules across the state. Everybody should be playing by the same set of rules.”
VHSL’s criteria for an eligible appeal to waive the transfer rule states that “Waivers will not be considered… for a student who is denied participation in League activities (a) because of local rules authorized in Section 27-8-10 [of the VHSL Handbook], or (b) because of any rule or regulation of any local school board or division superintendent…” As a result, FCPS regulation has the ability to determine whether or not a transferred student can participate in League activities.
The parents of the transfer students filed for an injunction against the ban one week before the first playoffs were to take place. The granting of this injunction came just 3 hours before the games were set to begin and has added further chaos to an already hectic situation. Team booster clubs around the county had already made preparations for the games such as paying for food, 1,000 or so Chick-fil-a sandwiches among other things. West Po’s band booster club sold off some of the concessions after the announcement was made.
Players and coaches were sent into limbo as the entire schedule had been rearranged. Robinson football players who were gearing up for their first playoff game found themselves eliminated from the playoffs entirely.
West Po football’s defensive coordinator Derek Radoski released a statement on Facebook about the cancellation: “Looking forward to actual legal discovery to include an investigation into the outsourced original Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) ‘investigation’. Truly sad for all kids involved from all programs, yet looking forward to the totality of justice to be served.”
The Wolverines were supposed to play a home game against South County but now face a more difficult away game against Fairfax on Thursday, November 21 at 7:00 p.m.
Having the game canceled was “pretty disappointing,” Jake Benningfield, senior linebacker, said. “It kind of sucks because now we have to play on the road, but it’s cool because we get to play a better opponent.”
The coaching staff also feels confident that the team will be ready to play.
“Point the bus where we’re going and let’s go play. We’re 2-1 lifetime against Fairfax in the playoffs,” LaGow said.
Correction: Story previously listed the incorrect date for the new West Po game.
Kelsey Otersen • Nov 24, 2024 at 10:50 PM
Great article! Interesting to read a West Potomac athlete’s perspective
GP Keeney • Nov 21, 2024 at 6:57 PM
Nice piece! Thank you for giving another FCPS perspective regarding recent events that not only impacted one school but eight others. Awesome job, thank you!