On Right is Guerdwich Montimere aka Jerry Joseph
Shock ran through the Permian High School community on Tuesday as their 16 year-old star basketball player Jerry Joseph was revealed to be someone else.
Joseph, as the community knew him, was actually was Guerdwich Montimere, a 22-year-old naturalized citizen from Haiti. He had lied about his identity and age in order to get what most former athletes dream of: a second chance at stardom. Unfortunately his dream came to an end with his arrest on Tuesday.
After being confronted Tuesday, Montimere, a star basketball player this year at Permian, admitted the deception and was arrested and charged with presenting false identification to a peace officer.
Montimere graduated from Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in 2007 after leading Dillard to the Class 5A state semifinal basketball game. Montimere then moved to Freeport, Ill., where he had signed a scholarship to play basketball at Highland Community College.
After a few months, he dropped out and moved back to Florida, Highland basketball coach Pete Norman told USA Today last week.
No one heard from Montimere until he moved to Odessa under the name Jerry Joseph in February 2009. He enrolled at Nimitz Junior High as a 15-year-old, claiming he was living with his half-brother Jabari Caldwell. Caldwell — who is not actually related to Montimere — was enrolled at UTPB on a basketball scholarship. Caldwell and Montimere were teammates at Dillard High School.
When Caldwell moved back to Florida last summer, Montimere was taken in by Permian’s head basketball coach Danny Wright. He was quickly embraced by the Panther’s community and named the District 2-5A Newcomer of the Year after averaging more than 20 points in his last nine games of the 2009-2010 season.
It’s a story that seems fictional, as if it were part of a movie or television show. Only fitting then, that it took place at the legendary Permian High School. The subject of H.G. Bissinger’s Friday Night Lights (and of course the eventual movie and television spin off), the Permian Panthers have been sensationalized in American media for the last two decades.
But when I read the headline of this particular tale of deceit and lies, it seemed almost appropriate that it took place at a high school with such a well publicized athletic history. The thoughts of returning to high school at an older age with a superior physical advantage are the dreams of parents, former players, and sports bloggers (your author included). But those thoughts are quickly dismissed with jokes and the laughable thought of having your own Drew Barrymore, Never Been Kissed-style of reliving high school.
The story is so absurd, it’s almost kind of impressive. How difficult was it to fool the Permian High School authorities? Obviously by playing on the sympathies of the Odessa community, the orphan was not questioned extensively about his background. The story only continues to feed the perception that in sports, any question marks can be quickly overwritten by performance. It seems impossible that no one doubted the 6-5 forward’s presence in Odessa, but he was certainly a gift to the basketball program so why bother? Montimere even denied the allegations at first, but when his Florida drivers license was brought to the attention of the school, it was impossible to continue the facade any further.
So now the Odessa community has found themselves under the spotlight of American sports media once again. But this time it wasn’t for another title or adding accolades to their Texas dominance, it was for allowing themselves to buy into the charade of 22 year-old Guerdwich Montimere. I don’t expect this tale to be turned into a book or movie. If so, it sure as hell better have Drew Barrymore.
