One of the most unbelievable high school football stories occurred over the weekend when a fake high school named Bishop Sycamore found itself in a matchup being aired on ESPN against IMG Academy.
It was a complete blowout with IMG Academy winning 58-0, but this didn't seem too outlandish at the time because they are one of the top high school football programs in the country. However, a few days later it was discovered that Bishop Sycamore is a completely made up school! Even during the game, the announcers stated live on air their concern about the legitimacy of the school and the safety of the players. Allegedly, Bishop Sycamore lied to Paragon Marketing Group, whom are responsible for scheduling ESPN's high school games, about the amount of Division 1 players on their roster.
“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 an official statement. “They have ensured us that they will take steps to prevent this kind of situation from happening moving forward.”
The fraud was easy to spot if anyone did any research into the school. It was easily discovered that the school's official address is a residential home and the football teams roster was mostly comprised of 19 and 20 year olds!
Making things even more crazy, it was also discovered that there is an ACTIVE arrest warrant out for their head coach, Roy Johnson, for fraud charges. Bishop Sycamore played 2 entire football games in a span of 3 days! They played a game on Friday night and then less than 48 hours later they squared off against IMG live on ESPN on Sunday afternoon. Even the NFL knows this is extremely dangerous for any football team. Wondering why IMG Academy even agreed to the game.
Now that fake high school has been exposed, players for the alleged school are speaking up and stating they were mislead to play for the "school." One student stated he had moved to the area from out of state to attend the fake school. Check out the student interview here!