((HT: NewsWest9.com))
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 is really a guy by the name of "Guerdwich Montimere" - a naturalized US 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 a few years ago.
Ector County ((TX)) officials said Montimere posed as 16-year-old "Jerry Joseph" and enrolled at Permian High School ((pictured, thanks ectorcountyisd.org/Odessa Permian HS)) in the town of Odessa for the 2009-2010 academic year. He also told the school's basketball coach, Danny Wright, that he was homeless.
Montimere was arrested at the high school Tuesday and booked into an Odessa, Texas jail on a charge of presenting false identification to a police officer.
Permian High officials say suspicions about the player's identity first arose when three Florida basketball coaches familiar with Montimere recognized him last month at an amateur tournament in Little Rock. The Odessa-American newspaper reported that the coaches recognized him as Montimere, who graduated from Ft. Lauderdale-Dillard in 2007.
School district officials said they grew more suspicious after contacting U.S. immigration officials.
Montimere was being held on $500 bond Tuesday night.
Jail officials said no attorney was listed for Montimere.
If convicted of the misdemeanor, Montimere could face up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.
The revelation means Permian likely will have to forfeit the 2009 basketball season in which the team made it to the District 2-5A state playoffs.
It's team coverage from KWES-TV...
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