Thread: Is Texas high school player a 22-year-old with an alias?

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Is Texas high school player a 22-year-old with an alias?
Updated 19h 22m ago | Comments 97 | Recommend 16\


Enlarge By John David Emmett, The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News Press

Some say Guerdwich Montimere, seen at right in this 2006 game photo, is Jerry Joseph.



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By Jim Halley, USA TODAY
Jerry Joseph is either a promising 16-year-old sophomore basketball player at Permian (Odessa, Texas) or he's Guerdwich Montimere, a 22-year-old who three years ago as a senior helped lead Dillard (Fort Lauderdale) to the Florida 5A state semifinals and was a McDonald's All American nominee.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Leticia Zamarripa said Wednesday that officials from her agency have proof that, while Joseph is a Haitian who is in the country illegally, he isn't Montimere.

Joseph is facing an immigration hearing, Zamarripa said.

Officials at Permian are looking into the matter, but Montimere's former AAU coach, Louis Vives, doesn't need an investigation to know that Joseph is not just a Montimere look-alike. "The moment I saw him, I knew it was Montimere," he said.

Vives, a coach with the South Florida Elite, was in Little Rock last month for a tournament. He said two of his players from Dillard first spotted the 6-5 guard they knew as Montimere playing for the New Mexico Force. Vives said the player denied he was Montimere when Vives spoke with him.

"It was shocking, and the question at hand was just why," Vives said Wednesday. "When I approached him, I just wanted to know what was going on. The surprised look on his face gave it away that it was him. ... Once he saw a Florida team and players and coaches who knew him, the look on his face was like, 'Wow, what am I into now?' "

Darryl Beasley, assistant athletics director of the University Interscholastic League in Texas, said he is waiting for the Ector County Independent School District to finish its probe before deciding whether the UIL will act. Permian principal Roy Garcia and basketball coach Danny Wright did not return calls.

Zamarripa, who's with the ICE office in El Paso, said investigators had checked an FBI database and determined through fingerprints that Joseph was not Montimere.

According to The Odessa American, Joseph was enrolled at Permian by Jabari Caldwell, who played with Montimere at Dillard. The American reported that, at that time, Caldwell was playing for the University of Texas-Permian Basin and signed an affidavit saying Joseph was his half-brother. A message left Wednesday evening for Caldwell by USA TODAY was not immediately returned.

However, Wright's wife, Jimmie, said Joseph called her last week and said he wasn't related to Caldwell, according to the American. Joseph is staying with the Wrights.

Calls Wednesday to the home of Montimere's family in Fort Lauderdale were not answered.

Pete Norman, then coach of Highland Community College in Freeport, Ill., said Montimere contacted him in 2007 after the player graduated from Dillard. "Montimere and a high school teammate, Edward Lonon, actually enrolled here in the fall of 2007 but did not stay long," Norman said. "Neither participated in any games. If I remember correctly, both were very weak academically, and I wanted to redshirt them. They did not like that idea and left."

Looking at pictures of Joseph and Montimere, Norman said the two were the same.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/preps/ba ... ster_N.htm

One thing for sure, UIL rules don't allow anone older that 18 to play high school sports in Texas. I have no doubt they will get to the bottom of it and some heads are probably going to roll over this one.