High School B-Ball Star Was a Fraud

The jig is up for Guerdwich Montimere: The 22-year-old former high school basketball player—who successfully passed as a 16-year-old to play on a West Texas high school team—has been outed. Montimere, who went by the name Jerry Joseph, had not only created a new identity but convinced Permian High coach Danny Wright that he was homeless. Wright ended up taking in the poor, two-faced soul. "I feel like I was hit by a ton of bricks...In my 50 years in education, I've never heard of anything like this," said Ector County district athletic director Leon Fuller. FBI fingerprint analysis had somehow allegedly cleared "Joseph," but that fact did not quell the suspicions of coaches familiar with Montimere's career in Florida. Montimere was arrested and jailed on charges of presenting false identification to police.