Back To School!

Permian player is impostor
BY CRAIG CRAKER/oaoa.com

Guerdwich Montimere was released from the Ector County Detention Center at 2:45 a.m. after an unknown person paid $115 to meet his $500 bond.

Original story

Guerdwich Montimere, a 22-year-old naturalized citizen from Haiti, was arrested Tuesday for posing as a 16-year-old sophomore named Jerry Joseph and attending Permian High School.

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 was arrested at Permian and taken to the Ector County Detention Center. At press time he was in a holding cell awaiting booking.

“I feel like I was hit by a ton of bricks,” ECISD athletic director Leon Fuller said. “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 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.

Caldwell moved back to Florida in the summer of 2009, and Montimere moved in with Permian basketball coach Danny Wright.

“He was a family member and that is devastating to my family,” Wright said. “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 said.

If popular culture and film has taught us anything about returning to school a second time its that you either have to be an undercover reporter (Never Benn Kissed) or an eccentric rich person seeking to repair/revisit/experience the past (Billy Madison/Back To School). You can't just go back to get a better sports scholarship the second time around. Of course there's some wiggle room for Scott Bakula in 'Necessary Roughness.' What's perplexing to me is how this kid wasn't better at basketball. I know he was newcomer of the year but a 22-year-old former JUCO player should be racking up Teen Wolf numbers in District 2-5A. This isn't exactly a basketball rich area.

I'm also wondering if this guy nailed down any high school trim during his stay at MOJO. If he did he may be looking at some significant statutory rape time added onto his fraud conviction.