Bishop Sycamore: The next big prep school...or not?

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

The first time I heard about the school was early 2019 when I had someone ask me if I knew of any members of the Catholic prelate in the Ohio area with a last name "Sycamore". (None that I know of.) When I inquired about the question, I was told there was a football from a new high school named either "Sycamore" or "Bishop Sycamore" in Ohio that was looking for 2019 games. I assumed that it was a private Catholic school, since Catholic schools are generally the only schools that regularly make use of the names of past clergy members to name their schools, but I didn't find any information on a "Bishop Sycamore" school via any of the Catholic diocesan/archdiocesan websites in Ohio.

After a surprising amount of research to find any info on the school/team, I learned about the new high school that was, in fact, named Bishop Sycamore, which is supposed to be a school for at-risk and underprivileged kids to earn a high school diploma while getting superior exposure to college athletic recruiters. They had a website pop up in early March 2019: www.bishopsycamore.org (the domain name is now expired). The school was intent on starting classes beginning in the Summer of 2019, and was a new venture undertaken by a handful of parents and football coaches from the former COF Academy (Christian of Faith Academy), a school that had been founded two years prior with a similar mission statement to Sycamore's.

Shortly shortly thereafter, word came down that Belfry coach Philip Haywood was in conversation with Bishop Sycamore about scheduling a game. Shortly after that, I got word that Johnson Central had added Bishop Sycamore to their schedule.

First the Belfry game fell through. Word on the street was that, following the OHSAA's mid-season disqualification of COF from their association membership in 2018, and the subsequent revocation of their school certification by the state BOE, there was trouble getting Bishop Sycamore registered with the OHSAA and that would mean the KHSAA prohibited competition between Bishop Sycamore and any of their member schools.

As it turned out, despite rumors that the Golden Eagles had dropped the game from their schedule and opted for St. Frances (MD) instead, Johnson Central went ahead with their September '19 game against Bishop Sycamore, hosting the Centurions and beating them 34-8. This was despite the fact that Bishop Sycamore had not obtained membership with the OHSAA for the 2019 football season. Sycamore's claim was that they "missed the deadline for OHSAA registration," and was forced to play as an independent, non-affiliated team. Those in the know in Ohio, however, alleged that it was more than likely that the school had applied to the OHSAA and was rejected due to the fact that most of their rostered football players already had high school diplomas.

Sometime in late-summer 2019, the Bishop Sycamore website domain expired, and nearly simultaneously the coaches at Sycamore began stating that they renamed their school to YouthBuild Academy, while still retaining Bishop Sycamore as the name of their football team. The website a social media links provided by Sycamore coaches for YouthBuild Academy connected to sites for the YouthBuild Columbus Community School, a vocational charter school in Columbus, OH for students age 16-21. Interestingly enough, the YouthBuild Columbus Community School has been around since the 2012-13 school year, so the claims by Bishop Sycamore coaches that they "renamed" their school are clearly inaccurate.

This all caught my attention today when I saw a tweet from a senior at Ola High School in Georgia regarding his "offer" from Bishop Sycamore. So it sounds like, at this point, Bishop Sycamore is going full-on prep school, complete with high school post-graduate years for student athletes hoping to find their way into scholarship offers to bigger and better college programs.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

One of the things that intrigues me about the program is it's overall record. COF Academy's one year of varsity football in 2018 turned out a 1-11 season record. Then in 2019 Bishop Sycamore was 4-5, and this past season they were 0-6. They have, however, played against some definite big names in high school football. What makes that notable is that Ohio's computer ranking system, the "Jack Harbin System", relies heavily on opponents' strength of schedule for assigning ranking points. So an OHSAA team that plays opponents with a weak schedule is at a ranking disadvantage compared to a team that plays opponents with a strong schedule...even if some of the opponents with the strong schedule are getting smashed by their opponents (although opponents with wins against big opponents are obviously even more desirable). So with that being the case, if Bishop Sycamore can maintain big opponents on their schedule, even if they are losing to them, then they are more likely to continue luring some of the big boys of Ohio football to schedule them.

In its two years as a program, Bishop Sycamore only has one win over a program with a winning record with their 22-14 win over Kiski Prep in 2019. For a little frame of reference there, if you pitted the 2019 Kiski Prep football team against the 2019 Pikeville football team, Calpreps projects it as a 38-18 win for Pikeville. Pikeville was a very solid 1A team in 2019, and they were the state champs, but if Sycamore is trying to impress with their schedule, then wins like the one over Kiski Prep isn't exactly wowing anyone. Yet they somehow did manage to get Florida's IMG Academy on their 2020 schedule. My assumption is that Bishop Sycamore cared more about having their name mentioned in the same sentence as IMG Academy than they did the score of the game.

COF Academy 2018:
8/17 Clarkson North (AK) - LOSS 35-0
8/24 North Allegheny (PA) - LOSS 45-20
8/31 Huber Heights Wayne (OH) - LOSS 42-6
9/7 Lima Senior (OH) - LOSS 26-14
9/14 Cleveland St. Ignatius (OH) - LOSS 35-0
9/28 Catholic Central (MI) - LOSS 35-14
10/5 Brother Rice (MI) - WIN 14-13
10/12 Dayton Dunbar (OH) - LOSS 14-12
10/19 St. Louis Christian Brothers (MO) - LOSS 45-14
10/23 Reigning Sports Thunder (OH) - LOSS 70-0
11/2 Cornerstone Christian (TX) - LOSS 27-12
11/9 St. Frances Academy (MD) - LOSS/FORFEIT

Bishop Sycamore 2019:
8/24 Tri-State King's Crusaders (IN) - WIN 66-6
9/14 Suffield Academy (CT) - LOSS 26-6
9/20 Johnson Central (KY) - LOSS 34-8
10/3 Kiski Prep (PA) - WIN 22-14
10/11 Ensworth (TN) - LOSS 30-0
10/12 Dohn Community (OH) - WIN 18-0
10/18 Warren Central (IN) - LOSS 37-6
10/25 Virginia Beach Catholic (VA) - WIN 48-0
11/9 Clearwater Academy International (FL) - LOSS 50-12

Bishop Sycamore 2020:
9/4 Washington Massillon (OH) - LOSS 35-0
9/12 Cleveland St. Ignatius (OH) - LOSS 33-6
9/18 Aurora (OH) - LOSS 31-8
9/26 St. Edward (OH) - LOSS 35-8
10/2 Warren (OH) - LOSS 37-14
10/16 IMG Academy (FL) - LOSS 56-6

[ATLCat]

Unfortunately I think you are going to see a growing trend.

High School Football is becoming more and more like AAU Basketball.... and AAU Basketball has changed the landscape of Prep Schools for Basketball as well.

Just as Oak Hill Academy changed the basketball game, IMG academy and St. Frances has done the same in football.

It would not surprise me if these "Prep Schools" don't become a dime a dozen over the next decade, and from all indication the Bishop Sycamore folks are trying to cash in and be one of the first. Lots of "money grabs" starting centered around capitalizing on folks trying to take advantage or an edge in recruitment.

What can't be ignored is Bishop Sycamore is playing (and losing) to legit teams. Lots of powerhouse programs above. If the tide turns and these prep schools start popping up and the practice becomes more acceptable like for these 2nd level basketball recruits who could care less about High School trophies and only care about earning that free ride, this will give them the leg up if the worms turns.

The other aspect that wouldn't surprise me is seeing more organizations like FBU who partner with these prep schools to start directing players much like you see in the different AAU organizations.

 

 

If there is a buck to be made.. someone will be trying to make it.

[theguru]

I just got a notice from Google.com that this thread is trending up 1000%. 👀

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

16 minutes ago, theguru said:

I just got a notice from Google.com that this thread is trending up 1000%. 👀

Color me shocked 🤣

...I saw that "Bishop Sycamore" was trending on Twitter for a while yesterday.

[REALSPORT]

From what I've read there is little funding.  For this concept to grow the funding will have to be ramped up considerably.  Football is expensive... equipment, travel.  The Ohio Dept. of Health should shut this circus down on the basis of the players health and safety.

[Tigerpride94]

They are being investigated by powers in Ohio. Not looking good for them. Probably good chance they get shut down.

[theguru]

Anyone reading this thread will also want to read this thread:

 

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Cincy Shirts got everything right except the "Est." year...

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Some of the findings from the official report on Investigation of Bishop Sycamore High School by the Ohio Dept. of Education:

"The Department finds that Bishop Sycamore was not open for instruction for the requisite hours for the 2020-2021 school year. For the 2021-2022 school year, the Department is unable to confirm whether the school was open for instruction for the requisite hours."

"The Department finds that students' enrollment in Bishop Sycamore High School was not reported to the treasurer of the respective school districts of residence for the 2020-2021 and the 2021-2022 school year."

"The Department is unable to confirm that Bishop Sycamore High School verifies that teachers and administrators meet the requirements [of having received a bachelor's degree or the equivalent thereof from a recognized college or university]."

"The Department is unable to verify Bishop Sycamore High School's representation that it has provided required courses of study for its students."

"The Department was unable to identify any criteria used by Bishop Sycamore High School to promote students from grade to grade."

 

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

5 minutes ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

Some of the findings from the official report on Investigation of Bishop Sycamore High School by the Ohio Dept. of Education:

"The Department finds that Bishop Sycamore was not open for instruction for the requisite hours for the 2020-2021 school year. For the 2021-2022 school year, the Department is unable to confirm whether the school was open for instruction for the requisite hours."

"The Department finds that students' enrollment in Bishop Sycamore High School was not reported to the treasurer of the respective school districts of residence for the 2020-2021 and the 2021-2022 school year."

"The Department is unable to confirm that Bishop Sycamore High School verifies that teachers and administrators meet the requirements [of having received a bachelor's degree or the equivalent thereof from a recognized college or university]."

"The Department is unable to verify Bishop Sycamore High School's representation that it has provided required courses of study for its students."

"The Department was unable to identify any criteria used by Bishop Sycamore High School to promote students from grade to grade."

 

The state is now investigating whether or not any criminal or civil crimes were committed.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]