Texas high school player is, in fact, 22 years old

Last week, we talked at length about the Jerry Joseph/Guerdwich Montimere situation out in Texas.

In case you forgot, Joseph is a 16 year old sophomore at Permian High in Odessa, TX. But at an AAU tournament in Little Rock, AR, he was spotted by some coaches from Florida who claimed he was Montimere, a 2007 graduate of Ft. Lauderdale's Dillard High. (Read about it here.)

Guerdwich Montimere actually is Jerry Joseph.
(photo credit: Orlando Sun-Sentinel)

Well, the jig is up for Mr. Montimere. After initially being cleared by Immigration, Montimere was arrested on Tuesday after being confronted by officials and admitting that he was, in fact, 22 years old. Apparently, Guerdwich has a twin named Guerdwin who is currently serving time in a Florida jail, and Guerdwich's fingerprints matched those on an application for immigration benefits for Guerdwin.

He was arrested and charged with using false identification.

The person you have to feel for here is Permian High coach Danny Wright. Wright has a reputation for taking in kids in tough situations, and he did just that with Montimere when Jabari Caldwell, a former teammate of Montimere's at Dillard High and current player at a local college who played the role of the older brother, left to return to Florida.

"I didn't do anything for my other sons that I didn't do for Jerry, Guerdwich I guess, whoever he is," Wright told the Odessa American. "I feel bad for my kids that treated him like a family member and embraced him and loved him."

"I guess he fooled all of us. Hurt is the best way to describe how I feel. I gave him all the opportunities in the world to come clean. I don't know why he did this."

Amazingly, this isn't the first time this happened in the last year. Anthony Avalos, a 22 year old also from Florida, played on the Yuma High team in Arizona before being caught in November after providing a fake birth certificate.