CANTON (SNN-TV) – Local powerhouse IMG Academy’s football team faced off against an Ohio-based school named Bishop Sycamore this weekend and it wasn’t a pretty result.
IMG Academy dominated in a 58-0 win, even though the game allegedly featured two powerhouse high school football programs. Bishop Sycamore indicated to ESPN it was on a similar competitive level, but questions about the program’s strength and legitimacy arose shortly after its nationally-televised drubbing.
Bishop Sycamore allegedly claims to make its home in Columbus, Ohio. However, it appears that the school might not be real. Schools that boast the name “Bishop” usually are associated with the catholic church and are named in honor of local bishops or historic bishops. However, The Diocese of Columbus, Ohio, doesn’t have any Bishop Sycamores throughout its history.
Also, ESPN and Paragon, the company that works to schedule and deliver high school matchups to ESPN, both said they were unaware that Bishop Sycamore had also apparently played a game on Friday night, and didn’t have the number of highly recruited prospects it claimed to have when the game was scheduled.
Midway through the second quarter, as Bishop Sycamore trailed 30-0, commentator Anish Shroff acknowledged that ESPN hadn’t been able to find evidence to support Bishop Sycamore’s claims that they brought a roster laden with Division I talent. “Bishop Sycamore told us they had a number of Division I prospects on their roster, and to be frank, a lot of that, we could not verify, They did not show up in our database, they did not show up in the databases of other recruiting services. So, OK, that’s what you’re telling us, fine, that’s how we take it in.”
Following the debacle, nearly all of Bishop Sycamore remaining opponents have canceled their match-ups, and head coach Roy Johnson, who had an active warrant out for his arrest, has since been fired.
