Saga surrounding Bishop Sycamore ongoing as players, parents speak out
It has been two days since a "high school" football team called Bishop Sycamore finagled its way onto an ESPN Sunday broadcast. But even as time passes, questions about the team's legitimacy remain unanswered as people formerly associated with the team begin to speak out.
Former players and parents attached to the Ohio-based football program have begun telling their stories about the so-called team, which has somehow been around for three years. One parent detailed to Awful Announcing, which has been at the forefront reporting on the fiasco, his son's experience with the team which included poor treatment of players, expensive hotel bills being dropped on parents and countless lies at the hands of head coach Roy Johnson.
In light of being blown out 58-0 by Florida-based powerhouse IMG Academy, reports began to emerge that Bishop Sycamore is not recognized by any major institution as a legitimate school. Reports also surfaced the team had played two games in three days, which breaks player safety protocols. It was later found some of the players on the roster are not high school age anymore and that Johnson has an active warrant out for his arrest.
Both ESPN and Paragon, the company responsible for scheduling the matchups on the worldwide leader in sports, have said they didn't know the program's background prior to the game on Sunday.
"We regret that this happened and have discussed it with Paragon, which secured the matchup and handles the majority of our high school event scheduling," ESPN said in a statement. "They have ensured us that they will take steps to prevent this kind of situation from happening moving forward."
Paragon itself told Awful Announcing it wasn't informed that Bishop Sycamore had played a game two days before and told The Columbus Dispatch it received a different player roster on Sunday than they had when the game was scheduled one month prior.
Now, it remains to be seen if more people will speak out with information about the program -- and if Bishop Sycamore's run as a fraudulent school will finally come to an end.
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