COLUMBUS, Ohio — Aaron Boyd said he had dreams of playing Division I football when he was playing in Cincinnati.
While attending an Adidas football camp he said coaches from Christians of Faith Academy, a supposed online school, recruited him to play in Columbus.
The coach was Roy Johnson, the same coach now at the center of an investigation regarding the misrepresentation of Bishop Sycamore’s football team who has since been fired.
Johnson also has an active warrant and is facing charges of alleged fraud.
Boyd joined COF in 2018 when he was 15-years-old. He says he hoped that being around older kids and playing against powerhouse high school football programs like IMG Academy in Florida, would be the best way to become a better football player.
None of it came true, he said.
“We weren’t going to school. I actually wanted to go to a real school. We weren't going to school at first and I thought it was cool at first, and then it was like man what am I doing?” he said.
Boyd said when he arrived in Columbus the team was sleeping in a Delaware County hotel after coaches told them they were waiting for their dorms to be ready.
“Instead we ended up going from place to place like Airbnb's. At one point I stayed with a girl in her college dorm,” he said.
He was also promised food, but then he said the money ran out so he and other players did what they needed to do to survive.
“Dine and dash. Take food from grocery stores and all that,” he said.
Boyd also never played against IMG Academy.
The game made national news when it had to be canceled after it was learned COF “was not operating in the address it had identified with the state of Ohio. The address given for the school was the headquarters for the Third Episcopal District of the AME church, which has since disavowed any knowledge of the school and its operations.”
Boyd is no longer playing football and is hoping to enroll at the University of Cincinnati. He said going to COF cost him his junior year which he had to make up in order to play football at Lakota High School his senior year.
As for kids looking to join Bishop Sycamore, Boyd had this to say: "Don't go because it's a waste of time."
Andre Peterson, Bishop Sycamore’s director, agreed to talk to 10TV about the football program via zoom but never appeared.
