Yeah, try figuring this one out...

Now this is a helluva way to begin a story:

Jerry Joseph is a 16-year-old star high school basketball player in Odessa, Texas. U.S. Immigration officials say he's in the country illegally. And some coaches from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., believe he's a former player who starred in South Florida and is actually 22.

Yeah, it confused me too.

Essentially, this is what happened. Cedric Smith and Louis Vives coach the South Florida Elite AAU team. At a tournament in Arkansas last month, they saw Joseph -- a 6'5" guard that was the regional newcomer of the year in West Texas in 2009-2010 -- but didn't recognize him as Jerry Joseph. They are convinced that Joseph is, in fact, Guerdwich Montimere, who starred at Ft. Lauderdale's Dillard High in the mid-2000's.

"I'm 100 percent sure. I would bet my paycheck," Smith told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Jerry Joseph is on the left, Guerdwich Montimere is on the right.
(photo credit: Newslog)

The US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency disagreed. Once rumors started swirling, ICE got involved, but they cleared Joseph, saying that he and Montimere were in fact different people.

It gets stranger. Last spring, Jabari Caldwell, who plays at UT-Permian Basin and was a teammate of Montimere's at Dillard High, was the one that enrolled Joseph in classes at Permian:

Joseph has a Haitian birth certificate that lists his birthdate as Jan. 1, 1994. Born in Haiti, Joseph escaped a nasty 2008 hurricane season by moving to Fort Myers, Fla. In both places, Joseph had been homeless. His parents died before he turned 5.

Caldwell signed an affidavit stating that he was Joseph’s half-brother. For the first time in his life — Joseph didn’t attend school in Fort Myers — he enrolled in public school at Nimitz Junior High.

But get this -- Caldwell isn't actually Joseph's brother! According to Caldwell, Joseph was actually the friend of a friend back in Florida who asked Caldwell to enroll him in school in Odessa.

But there's a problem. Joseph doesn't actually have any family in this country, which means that he is here illegally. His high school coach has taken him in for the time being while they wait for the immigration hearing.

Got all that? I don't think I do ... or will.

On the surface, this just screams conspiracy. Guerdwich Montimere disappears from Florida (most in the Florida basketball circles haven't seen Montimere since he graduated from Dillard), and a former teammate of his shows up in Texas and enrolls a "16 year old" in high school that is the same size, plays the same position, and looks exactly like Montimere? That is too much of a coincidence to over look.

But (there's always a but) remember that the ICE said that Montimere and Joseph were not the same people. The ICE is an agency tasked with identifying foreigners and determining if they are who they say they are.

Ugh.

I have no idea what to believe.

I feel like it goes without saying that we will be following along with this story.