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🏈 🔥 WATCH all the way through the end of this video to see spirited high school football players at South County High School exercise their civic duty to speak up for celebrated football coach Gerry Pannoni, who just lost his coaching job in a case of alleged retaliation in Fairfax County Public Schools. What’s more: FCPS allegedly shut down the South County football program and let go ALL of the coaches until a new coach is named and removed access to coach access to Hudl, a video platform, hurting students who are being recruited by colleges. In June 2024, I began reporting a local high school story for the @FairfaxTimes @DPearlProject with sports reporter @SravanGNews, and it became Virginia’s biggest youth sports scandal: controversial recruiting practices at Hayfield Secondary School in Fairfax County Virginia that led to a wider community reckoning on the issue of integrity in sports and calls for the resignation of @FCPSSupt Michelle Reid for her mishandling of the case. Today, at South County High School in Lorton, Va., about 300 football players, athletes and students streamed out of Door No. 1 at 2 PM to march on Laurel Crest Drive, shouting, “Reinstate Coach P.” Last year, Pannoni and other coaches raised red flags about alleged recruitment problems at Hayfield, and the school district official told coach Pannoni on Friday that he had lost his job. Parents and coaches say they are hearing that Reid is allegedly planning to retaliate against all the coaches for embarrassing her. FCPS denies the charge. FCPS sent a media relations officer to follow the march. He sat in the back of an FCPS security cruiser. FCPS Superintendent Reid investigated Pannoni for an audio tape with parents, indelicately describing the Hayfield recruiting as akin to “grooming.” We have learned that the principal had allegedly told Pannoni that students didn’t feel “safe”around the coach. The students I interviewed reveal a different story: speaking about Pannoni’s positive impact on their lives. “We love Coach Pannoni,” said many a student. This story speaks to wider issues about transparency, accountability, and integrity in both governance and school districts. Today, high school students spoke out when the issue touched their lives very personally, speaking up with clarity for a coach they respect. At the end, you will hear some students ask me who I am and I softly introduce myself with the Fairfax County Times. One calls us heroes for documenting this story and investigating its details. We are not heroes, but the story speaks to the heroic mission of local journalism in bringing truth to communities, from South County High School to beyond. We couldn’t report it without brave whistleblowers. Read all of our coverage here: FairfaxTimes.com/Hayfield.