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    Roy Johnson Fired as Bishop Sycamore Coach After Controversial Game Against IMG

    Adam WellsAugust 31, 2021

    Pelham High School football field is seen, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, where Clemson football head coach Dabo Swinney attend high school, in Pelham, Ala. Clemson will now play Alabama in the NCAA college football championship game on Monday. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
    AP Photo/Brynn Anderson

    Amid the fallout from Sunday's controversial high school football game against IMG Academy, Roy Johnson has been fired as Bishop Sycamore's head coach. 

    Bishop Sycamore founder Andre Peterson told Chris Bumbaca of USA Today that Johnson was no longer with the program. 

    Sunday's game on ESPN was supposed to be a showdown between two of elite high school programs in the country. 

    Instead, IMG Academy cruised to an easy 58-0 victory. Anish Shroff, who called the game for the network, said on the air how Bishop Sycamore wound up getting on television. 

    “Bishop Sycamore told us they had a number of Division I prospects on their roster,” Shroff said (h/t Jason Frakes of the Louisville Courier Journal). “To be frank, a lot of that we could not verify.”

    Shroff also took to Twitter to address the situation in response to a fan comment: 

    Anish Shroff @AnishESPN

    Sorry. They had no business being in that game today. None. I feel bad for the kids. Player health and safety was at risk today. It was uncomfortable for anyone who watched. <a href="https://t.co/Eq39vdywLm">https://t.co/Eq39vdywLm</a>

    Per Chris Easterling of The Independent, Bishop Sycamore is "an online-only charter school, with the non-OHSAA-affiliated football program serving as its most public face."

    Roy Johnson Fired as Bishop Sycamore Coach After Controversial Game Against IMG
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    Texas Football Life @TXFBLife

    This is the listed address of Bishop Sycamore, the school Duncanville is playing on 9/10. It appears to be a duplex. The other address listed on their MaxPreps accounts lists the Franklin University library building as an address. <a href="https://t.co/6Zl0KDRbrO">pic.twitter.com/6Zl0KDRbrO</a>

    Bishop Sycamore played a game on Friday night, against Sto-Rox High School in Pennsylvania, before taking on IMG two days later. 

    ESPN said in a statement that Paragon, the company that finds the best high school football matchups and schedules them for the network, "will take steps to prevent this kind of situation from happening moving forward."

    Per MaxPreps, Bishop Sycamore has lost eight straight games dating back to last year and was outscored 227-42 in six games during the 2020 season.