Hayfield's Pugh expected back as coach

At least seven of the 25 Fairfax County high schools will have new football coaches next fall, but Hayfield, the Hawks are hoping, will not be one of them.

Hayfield Coach Billy Pugh, who was hospitalized after a stroke at the school Oct. 19 and did not get cleared to return home until Dec. 30, is said to be progressing nicely. So he remains as head coach, with Roy Hill, named interim coach after Pugh’s illness last season, remaining as the temporary head coach for now.

Hill has been an assistant in the program for 21 years, 11 under Pugh.

“Coach Pugh is our head coach,” Hayfield Athletic Director E.W. Nowland said Thursday. “He is going to be back with the program next year, and until he can go 100 percent, Coach Hill is the interim head coach.

“[Pugh] is doing much better, and we’re all hoping when August rolls around, he’s 100 percent and ready to go again.”

Pugh, 49 at the time of his stroke, had weathered a 4-36 record from 2005 to 2008, the first four years after South County opened and siphoned off some of the Hawks’ talent. Pugh’s teams had won five or more games in five of his first six seasons at Hayfield.

The Hawks’ move to the National District last season gave the program a better chance to compete. They went 9-3, finished unbeaten in the district and topped Yorktown in the first round of the Division 5 Northern Region playoffs before falling to Lee in the semifinals, 28-24.