As people continue to try and wrap their heads around the bizarre Bishop Sycamore saga, the team’s new head coach, Tyren Jackson, decided to sit down with NBC4 in an effort to set the record straight.
Just over a week after the team first made headlines over questions of its legitimacy following a devastating, nationally televised against IMG Academy, Jackson admitted that Bishop Sycamore isn’t actually a high school and does not “offer curriculum.”
“We are not a school,” Jackson said. “That’s not what Bishop Sycamore is, and I think that’s what the biggest misconception about us was, and that was our fault. Because that was a mistake on paperwork.”
Bishop Sycamore—which is now at the center of an upcoming docuseries by Kevin Hart’s HartBeat Productions and Complex Networks—was identified by the state of Ohio as a “non-charter, non-tax supported school,” despite NBC4 Investigates not being able to find a proper school building. Jackson claims that the filing was submitted to the Ohio Department of Education before he was hired by the program seven months back.
“I don’t know anything about that,” Jackson said of a bell schedule and address that was associated with Bishop Sycamore. “I won’t speak on stuff I don’t know about. Like I said, if it was something that happened like that, then that’s terrible. That’s not how you do business.”
When asked about the state’s investigation, which was called on last week by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, Jackson said that he doesn’t have “any problem with cooperating.”
“That stuff should never had happened the way it happened,” Jackson explained. “I’m willing to take responsibility for it and say that it was a mistake. It’s something that shouldn’t have been that way, and that’s something that I have to address stepping into this role.”
Jackson added that “a lot of it was self-inflicted,” when asked about teams pulling out of Bishop Sycamore’s schedule in response to the national headlines the team has been making. “But at the same time, that’s probably from a head-down type of thing. Don’t attack these kids. Don’t take that part from them, now that they don’t have a season, possibly. Once the smoke clears, we’re national news. Whoever does schedule us next will be national news.”
Outside of questions of legitimacy, former Bishop Sycamore players have opened up to Complex over alleged wrongdoings by former head coach Roy Johnson, allegations of players not being high schoolers, and more.
