Kiara Repuyan

Out of the many recent changes Hayfield has seen this year, the recent addition to the Varsity Football Team in hiring a new head coach is one of the utmost surprising ones. Alongside new administration and policies, Hayfield welcomes a new change in the leadership within its football team. 

Following a season with a record of 6-5, and the new leadership of Monty Fritts as Hayfield’s new athletic director, there were many indications that perhaps a change would be the most beneficial thing for Hayfield’s football development. 

“At the end of every season for every sport, I meet with the coaches and debrief about what direction we want to go in,” Hayfield Athletic Director Monty Fritts said. “We decided at the end of the football season, we wanted to go in a different direction and start looking for a new head football coach.”

The news of a vacant head coach position at Hayfield spread like wildfire, and the decision on who would fill that spot among the competition was Fritt’s number one priority. 

“We had 58 applicants, and I picked the top four to interview. There were a huge amount of people that wanted to be the head coach,” Fritts said. 

And out of those top four candidates, one stood out the most. Surprisingly, a coach who had just won two back to back state championships for football was in the pool to fill Hayfield’s head coach position. Darryl Overton, former head coach at Freedom High School in Woodbridge, was the person Fritts felt would be the best for leading Hayfield’s football team. 

Regarding how Fritts managed to convince Overton to take the position, he reveals that his past as the head football coach at Mount Vernon High School served to be a major player. 

“Some of it was knowing some of the same people. I was a football coach before I came here to Hayfield, and we kind of knew each other beforehand,” Fritts said. “I think that was really the connection between us both, he knew I was a football coach and would help him with whatever he needed, and that’s kinda how our connection started.”

However, Hayfield sport’s administration, although very excited with a promise in leading the football team in a great direction, were dedicated in concealing the news of Overton’s hire.  Fritts revealed that the process in searching for a new coach started at the end of the football season in November, and ended with the confirmation of Overton’s hire at the end of January. 

“We didn’t announce him being hired for awhile because he’s also the girls basketball coach at Woodbridge,” Fritts said. 

But, when the news came out, immense excitement radiated through the community, with news articles being posted of Hayfield’s new hire on news websites such as InsideNoVa.com and The Washington Post. Many were simply extremely impressed and surprised with an amazing hire, as Overton’s presence is a promise that the Hayfield Hawks is a definite team for other football teams to watch out for this year. 

Furthermore, there has been major discussion of Hayfield’s football team being a major contender for a state championship. In all of the school’s 56 years of football history starting back in 1968, Hayfield has never won a state championship. The closest the team has ever been to winning one is back in 1992, where the football team made it to the State semi finals. 

Coach Overton has already made his presence known at Hayfield. Officially starting his job as a security guard in April, many can find him walking the halls and holding friendly conversations with students. However, the minute the end of school comes, one can find Overton immediately down at the boys locker room ready for a hardworking day of practice. 

“Coach [Overton] hasn’t lost a game in three years,” Fritts said. “The hope is that we’re going to be very awesome. I think that the kids have already started to build relationships with him and the football players really love him. He’s already starting to have a super positive change in their behavior.”

Dedicating himself to continuing his winning streak leading Hayfield’s football team, many can expect an emergence of a promising football team for Hayfield next year under Coach Overton.