Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What we have here is a mini culture war among those involved with high school football, but this same thing can happen in other situations where DEI goes wild. On the one hand, there is the "Traditional" view of High School football:
(1) Local guys in the high school (ONLY, with just a few allowable exceptions) turn out for the team.
(2) These are local "student-athletes" so they must keep their grades up or cannot participate.
(3) The local band, cheerleaders, parents, booster club, etc. support the team and vice versa, in the name of "school spirit" of friendly rivalry with the other schools in their district.
Unfortunately, this traditional view, which was universal among high school and colleges at one time, has been severely eroded what with active recruiting, big money from TV deals and recently NIT, as well as legalization of gambling. Fairfax County seems to be one of few bastions of this traditional view, while other districts in the state, private/parochial schools, and colleges have been corrupted to treat the program the same as professional football.
The other view is that of the Football Fanatic:
(1) High school football (as with the pros) should have the goal of gathering the best team for that high school the same way as the pros do by recruiting the best talent possible from ANYWHERE.
(2) Emphasis is strictly on football--academics be damned.
(3) This group completely eschews the traditional view, and demands that their view is the only one.
When DEI gets involved, this allows for the unscrupulous (such as group around Coach Overton) to "groom" an eminently Black (with perhaps few Hispanic) group of students with the lofty goal of making sure that they get football college scholarships---that as minorities they would never have gotten, by any means at the expense of all of the other football players at the school, i.e., completely unfair and unethical. The corruptive grooming starts at an early age with Club football starting at the early age of 8-10. Then there is the monetary corruption with high fees for Club sports, questionable fund-rasing by Boosters at the high school level (The Karen religious nutcase), questionable fees to high school players, and illegal use of school facilities for club sports. In the Hayfield situation the Football Fanatic pardigm (with all its ethical and financial corruption) becomes essentially "Ghetto"
In the Hayfield case the Footbal Fanatics yell racism due to white supremacy of the football program in Fairfax County, but this is NOT true, e.g. the original whistleblower was a black woman and her football player son at Hayfield. The Hayfield fanatics are the racist ones for blaming everything on white supremacy---classic case of the "pot calling the kettle black" (the pun on black is ironic!)
This situation was not "nipped in the bud" by Supt and School Board back in spring 2024 (whistleblower) due to a misplaced concern for "equity" by the Supt. She even stated in August that the internal investigation did not find Hayfield to be doing offensive recruiting nor other violations. I think it was the black asst superintendent that was really responsible for that investigation, with the Supt just rubber-stamping it. However, it was completely obvious by Nov to the VHSL that ethics had been violated when (1) Hayfield "whupped asses" of all other Fairfax teams with lopsided scores, (2) demise of football at Overton's previous Freedom High in Prince William Co, (3) local Hayfield players being replaced by the transfers---hence the ban on playoffs. THe School Board was equally complacent by ignoring the whole thing (in spite of 3 members calling for an external investigation back in August when Supt made her statement). Hayfield parents made last ditch effort with injunction allowing them to play first playoff game. The the final straw (at least made public) was the Fritz scandal.
Typical white supremacist jargon above. Stick a Black face on it, pretend she was the one responsible, and claim it can’t be racism.
The Black woman they are talking about had no power to do this. We’ve heard about other coaches organizing, complaining, and making racist statements about Hayfield. Parents at Madison, Lake Braddock, west Springfield, Chantilly, and etc were upset and complaining after getting blown out.
Then there is this racist and ambitious LBGTB school board member has jumped on the story to gain political momentum at the expense of the Hayfield students. We have VHSL representatives from historically racist areas that barred Hayfield. There is racism all over this story.
I do think Reid made the right decision to withdraw Hayfield because it’s just gotten to be too much. Especially with the text messages. The outsiders just wouldn’t let the kids play. But it’s disingenuous to pretend some disgruntled Black parent is the one who shut the Hayfield football program down this season.