Bishop Sycamore faces investigations
Besieged program also has game cancellations
It’s been clear since Sunday that Columbus-based Bishop Sycamore isn’t the elite-level high school football team it claimed to be before losing 58-0 to
IMG Academy on ESPN. And it became clear on Tuesday that it isn’t the charter school it claims to be, or even much of a school at all.
Now, the besieged program is facing police investigations and game cancellations.
Since the beginning of the 2020 season, Bishop Sycamore, which is not a member of the Ohio High School Athletic Association, hasn’t won a game and has been outscored 342-49. Although some local coaches knew Bishop Sycamore wasn’t legitimate as early as 2019, the school went largely unnoticed until convincing ESPN it was worthy and then getting exposed.
On Tuesday, Ohio governor Mike Dewine directed the Ohio Department of Education to conduct an investigation into Bishop Sycamore.
On Wednesday, Canton police confirmed that the hotel where Bishop Sycamore stayed for the game against IMG
Academy reported the team for writing invalid checks.
A police report reviewed by the Canton Repository showed the hotel reported two invalid checks were written for the bills, totaling $3,596. The hotel also assessed $250 cleaning fees on three of the rooms.
And that isn’t the only legal trouble pending for those who have been closely
associated with Bishop Sycamore.
Former coach Roy Johnson, who athletic director Andre Peterson said he fired after Sunday’s game, has a bench warrant out in Delaware County. The warrant was issued July 2.
The warrant relates to an unpaid fine in a case from 2020, in which Johnson was originally charged with assault. Johnson pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of criminal mischief. A fine of $1,396.20 was due Nov. 10 but was never paid.
Police responded to a call on March 7, 2020, in Powell, where a woman who identified herself as Johnson’s girlfriend said Johnson hit her in the lip and threw her against the wall. Johnson denied any physical altercation with the woman.
An attempt to garnish the fine from Johnson’s wages in January was unsuccessful after the place of employment he listed told the court he had never been employed by them.
Meanwhile, questions about Bishop Sycamore as an educational institution continue to arise. The program has yet to register with the Ohio Department of Education for the 2021-22 school year, though it has until the end of September to file its paperwork.
In the 2020-21 school year, Bishop Sycamore reported just three enrolled students to the state. And as a nonchartered, non-tax supported school, Bishop Sycamore is also required to report its enrollment to the treasurer of its home district.
But Columbus City Schools could locate no such reports – nor any evidence from the state that there even is such a school to make any reports.
“There is no school with this name in the Ohio Education Directory System,” Columbus City Schools spokeswoman Jacqueline Bryant said. “The district has not received enrollment information for a Bishop Sycamore.”
But in spite of the chaos surrounding
the program, as long as Bishop Sycamore had games on the schedule, it could still be a football team – and planned to play out its schedule. But the remaining schedule is quickly dwindling.
Johnson Central in Paintsville, Kentucky, was scheduled to host Bishop Sycamore on Friday and canceled the game Tuesday night. Next week’s opponent, Duncanville (Texas), has canceled, as well.
Lakewood St. Edward is seeking other opponents for Sept. 24, when it was scheduled to play Bishop Sycamore.
“It was supposed to be our homecoming week, so we’d like to find another game,” St. Edward coach Tom Lombardo told USA TODAY. “We have reached out to other opponents, but now it’s just a matter of finding one. If we can’t, we’re not sure what we’re going to do.
“We may just take the bye week. They may not even be around by Week 6, so it leaves us in a very tough spot. It’s just far enough away that we have some time.”
Dematha Catholic in Hyattsville, Maryland, canceled the game set for Oct. 1. St. Thomas More in Oakdale, Connecticut, canceled the game on Oct. 8. Liberty (Henderson, Nevada) and Life Christian Academy (Chester, Virginia) also have canceled their scheduled games against Bishop Sycamore.
St. Frances Academy in Baltimore, set to host Bishop Sycamore on Oct. 22, is the lone school that hasn’t commented publicly on whether the game will be played. A call to St. Frances’ athletic department was not immediately returned.
And while Bishop Sycamore’s disorganized appearance on ESPN raised red flags nationally about the legitimacy of the program, it’s far from the first time the team has run into issues while attempting to play a game.
In August 2019, Bishop Sycamore dropped out of a scheduled Freedom Bowl game against Mainland (Daytona Beach, Florida) that was to be played in Milton, Georgia. Freedom Bowl officials told Mainland that Bishop Sycamore was out of the game due to a breach of contract.
This year, Bishop Sycamore was scheduled to participate in a preseason jamboree hosted by Macon County in Tennessee. But about two weeks before the jamboree, Bishop Sycamore representatives stopped communicating with Macon County coach Kyle Shoulders.
“We just couldn’t get a response from them,” Shoulders told The Tennessean. “It kind of put us in a bad spot . ... You see them playing on ESPN and they look exactly what you expect. They are totally unorganized like they just put the team together three or four days before.”
USA TODAY reporter Lorenzo Reyes, Tennessean reporter Tom Kreager, Canton Repository reporter Lori Steineck and Dispatch reporter Bill Bush contributed to this story. bjohnson@dispatch.com @baileyajohnson_