Just when I thought this story couldn’t get any wilder…
We brought y’all the story of Bishop Sycamore on Monday, the team who somehow convinced ESPN and IMG that they were a high school football powerhouse with several division one prospects, and made their way on national TV for a 58-0 curb stompin’ at the hands of mighty of IMG.
Apparently, that wasn’t even half the story.
As more info has been released about this “Bishop Sycamore” school, we’ve discovered some even crazier details.
First off, according to FOX, Bishop Sycamore isn’t even affiliated with the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA), so they aren’t even allowed to play legitimate games and play in the postseason. The OHSAA never even deemed them an actual school, as the ESPN announcers even claimed they were told Sycamore is an “online charter school.”
What’s even crazier is that their coaches Leroy Johnson and Jay Richardson have an active arrest warrant for fraud, and Johnson also failed to appear in court for a domestic violence case.
According to the site, the coaches took their players to play paintball for team bonding somewhere in Ohio, and after Johnson and Richardson paid the paintball place, the money on their cards wasn’t even real.
But wait, there’s more…
According to Sports Illustrated, Sycamore’s roster includes players who aren’t even in high school, as the average age of players range from 19-20. Some of the players were even Junior College dropouts.
There were also some troubling details with a former Sycamore player, Aaron Boyd.
According to Boyd, he was given brochures and books about the school, and its plan. The information contained how the school was supposed to look, and even told him that the school was gonna be featured on a Netflix show.
“They sent me books with, like, s*** on how the school was supposed to look, blueprints and everything. They told us we was gonna be on Netflix; they recruited us telling us we were gonna be on a show. They told us we’re gonna be the IMG of the midwest. They lied to me and my mama.”
He said that him and his teammates were living in a hotel in Delaware, Ohio, and even though the “school” said they would pay for everything, they didn’t pay a dime. In fact, many of the players were forced to break into grocery stores to steal food.
“For the last month and a half, we had about 35 players. We moved into these new houses. For that month and a half, we was sleeping on the floor. We had to go rob Meijers, Krogers, Walmart because that’s the only way we can eat.”
He also mentioned more info in an interview with Complex:
“We didn’t go to school. We never went to school. I can’t lie; they tried once. They took us to a community library. One day. It was already October, the season was about to be over. It was like at this point, ‘Well sh*t, I’m not going to school. Y’all haven’t put me through school this whole time.'”
This is absolutely nuts.
We have a fake high school with college aged players, coaches who are in trouble with the law and forced their players to steal food to survive, promised a show on Netflix, and punked ESPN into playing on national TV.
Man, this 30 For 30 is about to be something else. I can hear it now:
“What if I told you, Bishop Sycamore, didn’t exist.”
