High school recruiting scandal, bullying alleged at Hayfield
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Neighborhood boys no more
- Thread starter mbonape1
- Start date
Yawn. Name a high school that is good on consistent basis and they have transfers, period...
My question is: the kids who left Hayfield - did they move residences or are they using the same means the people coming into Hayfield are using?...
My question is: the kids who left Hayfield - did they move residences or are they using the same means the people coming into Hayfield are using?...
You don't have to change address with Fairfax County. It is the ones coming from Prince William County that have to show a Fairfax County address to play sports for a Fairfax County School.
Regardless of how guilty Coach Overton actually is of breaking the rules, he made a huge mistake of moving to a Fairfax County school. He should've understood that his standard operating procedure wasn't a fit. Moving to Hylton would've made more sense.
The real question is why did they just up and move after playing for Hayfield the year before?
I mean it’s pretty clear to me that the actual tension here is that Overton is all but, and maybe even explicitly, telling many Hayfield kids that they will not be contributing to the team he’s trying to make. Whether his actions are illegal I won’t speculate, but that’s the motivating factor for the anger of the hayfield parents. It’s certainly not ethical from my perspective.
The transfer game is a balancing act. Nobody is turning down more talent. But if you want a healthy program and not just a good team, the base of your roster has to be your own kids.
The transfer game is a balancing act. Nobody is turning down more talent. But if you want a healthy program and not just a good team, the base of your roster has to be your own kids.
I think that is one of the reasons Salem doesn't generally get many transfers. They give preference to seniority in the program. At the beginning of the year they usually start the Srs and guys that have been in the program that have put in the work in the off season. Starting positions can be won over the course of the year through hard work and performance in practice. Certainly talent can't be overlooked, but more starting positions are won by showing up, hard work, and attitude, than by sheer talent. Guys that transfer in to Salem generally do so by 9th grade or even middle school. It's better to get established into the program as early as possible. Otherwise, what would that do to a team's morale to have transfers constantly taking guys spots that have been there and put in the work? Also, transfers find out real quick that the competition in practice is generally much harder at Salem than most competition they'll find on the playing field. There's a sign on the practice fields that says Proving Grounds for a reason.
My philosophy is the best kids need to play. But that doesn’t mean the “more talented” kid is gonna be the best. A “program player” that is 75% as athletic as a guy who got here last week is probably better for your team. Even if that new kid is better, they need to earn that on the field. It’s not just dumb for your community relations to anoint transfers, it’s bad football.
Martinsburg gets quite a few local transfers, but just like you say for Salem, most of those kids are coming in the 8th and 9th grade. The best programs will always pull kids in(and lack of playing time will push kids out), but you can’t build the kind of sustained excellence you see at a Dinwiddie, Highland Springs, Salem, Stone Bridge, etc by just going out and getting an all star team. You can have a great team for a few years maybe, but eventually you either piss off enough locals that they start picking apart your books(which given you’re trying to juggle all these transfers, probably aren’t clean even if you think they are) or your recruiting well runs dry. And then you’ve got no base to fall back on.
He's watched too much Deion Sanders social media on YouTube and is trying to run this program like he does his. Ain't going to work up there. I think the Fairfax County parents aren't going to let things slide in regards to things he may have been able to get away with tucked in eastern Prince William County.
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