Unfortunately for the kids, parents and anyone who cares about health and safety, there might not be a more suitable name for the new HBO documentary than BS High.
The film focuses on the creation, exposure and fallout of the Bishop Sycamore High School football team, an unaccredited “school” from Columbus, Ohio, that played legendary prep program IMG Academy on ESPN. IMG’s pummeling of Bishop Sycamore 58-0 on August 29, 2021, left several players injured, social media users roasting the team and many asking who was responsible for the spectacle.
The film opens with humor, as self-proclaimed football coach Roy Johnson asks the crew if he looks like a “con man” in the first five minutes. Johnson’s audacity is amusing until children start tearfully telling their side of the story.
“In the beginning, (we) allow him to treat you, the viewer, in the way that he treats all of his subjects, all the people that he’s attempting to con—by making you think that he has all the best intentions, he’s a good person,” Travon Free, one of the film’s directors, told USA Today. “And then the thread gets pulled, and it unravels, and you see exactly who he is, what he is and what he’s done.”
Free, who directed the film with Martin Desmond Roe, also revealed to USA Today that the production crew interviewed Johnson three times for 10 hours and did a fourth interview to press him about how his story differed from former Bishop Sycamore players, parents, journalists, a whistleblower and others.
Courtesy of HBO
Johnson admits in the film that he sought athletes for Bishop Sycamore, originally founded as Christians of Faith Academy, from impoverished backgrounds. He promised players game film against the best competition and help getting the grades needed to attend a Division I college.
Players say they never went to class and that there were no teachers or buildings. The team didn’t have any medical staff or trainers. Johnson himself didn’t have experience as a football coach.
BS High explores how this scam involving a fake high school was hatched and the lasting damage it inflicted upon many. Here are the top takeaways from the film, which is nearly 90 minutes and now streaming on MAX.
Trillian Harris scholarship offer revoked
Quarterback Trillian Harris came to Bishop Sycamore from California hoping to play against elite competition and get scouted by Division 1 programs. Despite suffering an injury in the loss against IMG, he received a scholarship offer to play for head coach Hue Jackson at HBCU Grambling State University.
Jackson built a reputation as a quarterback expert during his time coaching in the National Football League. It would’ve been a great place for Harris to learn. When Bishop Sycamore was outed as a fake school by the state of Ohio, Grambling pulled the scholarship offer.
“As soon as I thought I was actually happy, I found out my Grambling offer was taken away because I went to Bishop Sycamore,” said Harris, who teared up when discussing the fallout. “I broke down. I went to my room and cried. I was supposed to be living my dreams. I’m supposed to be the one to show the little homies whatever you go through, you can make it, you can make it to D-I.”
Harris recently posted on Twitter that he’s back on the West Coast to attend East Los Angeles Community College (ELAC).
He’ll continue his academic career while playing quarterback at ELAC.
Johnson reveals violent side
In one of the darker moments of the documentary, interviewees describe Johnson finding a man attempting to break into his car. Johnson told producers that he hit the man with a belt, then instructed his student-athletes to beat him up.
Players also recalled Johnson running over a flock of geese and using the moment as an allegory about toughness on the football field.
In another scene, players told the producers that Johnson physically assaulted and verbally abused his girlfriend in front of the team. Johnson denied the allegation.
A grocery con game
Johnson admitted to ordering 25 rotisserie chickens from a local grocery store. He intentionally did not pick up the birds, hoping he could swoop in on marked-down chickens from a store desperate to recoup any money.
In one of his more honest moments, Johnson said: “How else was I supposed to feed 50 kids?”
Loopholes
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the show was the revelation that there isn’t a law against creating a fictitious school. Ben Ferree, former assistant director of officiating and sports management at the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA), is a central figure in the movie. He attempted to expose Johnson for three years before the IMG game put a spotlight on him.
OHSAA wrote a document of nearly 80 pages, blasting Johnson and Bishop Sycamore. However, there’s nothing anyone can do to stop Johnson or anyone else attempting to replicate a bogus school.
“I’m still angry that there’s been no consequences for Roy or anyone who helped him pull this off,” Ferree told Newsweek on Wednesday. “It’s upsetting that the OHSAA or the Ohio Legislature hasn’t made even one change that would prevent a Bishop Sycamore style scam from happening again.
“I’m glad the documentary is showing people what happened, but, I wasn’t looking for validation that I was right because there’s evidence that proves Bishop Sycamore wasn’t a real school. I was hoping to see things change and that hasn’t happened as of yet.”
As the show ends, with Johnson in a darkened room talking to a producer, he makes it clear that he plans to keep trying to field football programs.
“Now I’ve got a platform to raise funds, to talk about what happened, to talk about what the program was about. You want to hear something that’s crazy about all this? More than 15 schools, after they canceled our season, want to play us next year,” Johnson said during one of the final scenes of HBO’s BS High. “You thought Bishop Sycamore was going anywhere? You thought the stories that we made … you thought this was going somewhere?”
“You didn’t think we were going to climb that tree. I can just see it now, just the apologies. You don’t have to apologize to me, just to them, to the players, all those people you said didn’t exist. You owe them an apology.”
Newsweek’s attempts to contact Johnson about the documentary went unanswered as of publication time.