A West Texas student who led his high school basketball team to the state playoffs last season was actually a 22-year-old man, police said Tuesday.
Police say the basketball star was really Guerdwich Montimere, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Haiti who school officials say was recognized last month by Florida coaches as having been a star high school player in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a few years ago.

Ector County school district officials said the man posed as 16-year-old Jerry Joseph and enrolled at Permian High School in Odessa for the 2009-2010 academic year. He also presented himself as homeless to the school's basketball coach, Danny Wright, who took the boy in last summer, the coach said.

Montimere was arrested at Permian High on Tuesday and booked into Ector County jail on a charge of presenting false identification to a peace officer.

Guerdwich Montimere admitted the deception, the newspaper reports, and was charged Tuesday night with presenting false identification to a peace officer, the paper says.

"I feel like I was hit by a ton of bricks," says athletic director Leon Fuller. "In my 50 years in education, I've never heard of anything like this."

Montimere graduated from Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 2007 after leading Dillard to a state semifinal basketball game. He then played basketball briefly at a community college in Illinois.

The newspaper says Montimere moved to Odessa in 2009 and enrolled in a junior high as 15-year-old Jerry Joseph, eventually moving in with Permian basketball coach Danny Wright.

"He was a family member and that is devastating to my family," Wright says. "This affected a lot of people. The whole school of Permian embraced that kid. He deceived us and played on everyone involved's emotions.

"He has been lying to everyone, my God, what is up with that?" Wright tells the newspaper.

Montimere played varsity basketball for the Panthers his sophomore season, which means the entire season will likely be forfeited.

The school and the newspaper were tipped off about two weeks ago by sources from Florida, leading to his eventual unmaking by immigration officers, the Odessa American reports.




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