The Sports Brewery

16 year old high school basketball player may or may not be 22

Posted on 08. May, 2010 at 8:00 am by SKI in Basketball, Beer + Stuff

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.

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?’ “

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.

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.

If this guy is actually 22 I am so jealous. He finds a way to beat the system and a jealous former coach and some pussy players try and screw him over because they weren’t smart enough to think of this themselves. I’m mean think how much fun it would have been to play high school sports 4 years after you graduated.The extra knowledge of the game, extra practice and just 4 more years of becoming a man, how could you not have the time of your life dominating some little kids.

Now I know some of you sick bastards are thinking about all the high school tail you would pull, with being able to buy alcohol and just extra life knowledge of how to pull chicks anyone would be up to their necks in underage girls, but if this guy is actually 22 I see the main conviction against him being the whole underage chick thing.

From what the Immigration and Customs people are saying it’s not him, so in the end this will probably turn into a none story, but if he does turn out to be 22 get ready to hear a lot of angry protesters complaining about how shitty our school system is now that someone that is 22 can go back to high school and a whole lot of other shit. When in reality everyone should just tip their cap to this guy and say you had a good run.

Tags: Basketball