The story of Ohio high school Bishop Sycamore went viral Monday after the school allegedly tricked ESPN into broadcasting a football game against the defending national champions, IMG Academy. Bishop Sycamore was so outmatched that the on-air commentators questioned the legitimacy of the football program.

Multiple sources later discovered multiple issues related to the school. Many questioned if the school even existed due to the Ohio High School Athletic Association's failure to verify the school's location. It was also discovered that the team played a game only three days before its matchup against IMG, the football team's head coach allegedly has an active arrest warrant related to fraud charges, and many of Bishop Sycamore's players had already graduated high school.

Following the viral story, Complex interviewed the first-ever player recruited by Bishop Sycamore, Aaron Boyd. At the time Boyd was a part of the team, Bishop Sycamore was known as COF Academy before the school was shut down in 2018. Boyd detailed the lack of education, lies, and sub-par living conditions he and his teammates endured while playing for the program.

Boyd claimed recruiters lied to him and said the program would be featured in a Netflix show. After relocating to a new city to attend the school, Boyd discovered that the team was housed in a hotel. After five months in the hotel, Boyd found out that the coach had been writing bounced checks in addition to allegedly scamming the church that was funding the football program.

Boyd added that he and his teammates never went to school. He also described the living conditions and confirmed playing with players older than normal high school students.

"I don’t know about JUCO kids, but I tell you I was 15 and everybody else was 19 and 20," Boyd said. "I got videos on my phone right now. Whatever you want to see, I got videos of. People sleeping on the floor. N****, we didn't have practice, we just went to games. You see how it said they played two games in three days, we really did that. We ain't practice, we just went to games."

After describing how attending the school affected his eligibility status, Boyd claimed the living conditions got so bad that players resorted to robberies in order to eat. He also explained how having such a mixture of players with limited accommodations created a violent environment.

"For the last month and a half, we had about 35 players. We moved into these new houses. For that month and a half, we was all sleeping on the floor. We had to go rob Meijers, Krogers, Walmart because that's the only way we can eat," he continued. "It's crazy but I can think of s*** that's crazier than that. Sleeping on the floor and doing all that s***, that don't get to me. N***** almost got stabbed in there. We had players from every borough of New York. Then we had players from inner-city Columbus. That's where I'm from. Everything didn't mix especially with no supervision."

Source: Complex