My Momma always said that if somebody has two first names, then be careful. Well, Odessa, Texas (home to Friday Night Lights) wishes they would have had my Momma’s advice.
Guerdwich Montimere, aka Jerry Joseph, was arrested at Permian High on Tuesday and booked into Ector County jail on a charge of presenting false identification to a police officer. Who is Jerry Joseph? He was a basketball star at Permian who lead his team to the Texas state playoffs. Unfortunately, Jerry Joseph is also Montimere who is 22 years old and not 16 as he claimed. In actuality, the 6 foot 5 Montimere graduated from Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale where he starred on their basketball team.
To make matters worse, Montimere not only came to Permian High School claiming to be 16, but also claimed to be homeless. He played on the emotions of the community and Permian’s coach, David Wright, even took Montimere in and became his guardian.
“This affected a lot of people. The whole school of Permian embraced that kid. He deceived us and played on everyone’s emotions,” Wright said.
Suspicions surrounding Montimere began to arise while he was playing in an amateur basketball tournament in Arkansas and some Florida AAU coaches recognized him. The coaches not only recognized that Joseph looked like Montimere, but they also noticed that they had the same playing style and mannerisms. The FBI got involved and fingerprints were done. The result, “Montimere wasn’t Joseph, but that Joseph was in the country illegally.”
Sidebar–What? The FBI did fingerprints and determined it wasn’t the same person? Do you feel safe right now? I mean, really? Really, FBI we couldn’t identify him? Really? It took some Florida AAU COACHES TO BREAK THIS CASE!!! Really??
Luckily the Florida coaches, Cedric Smith and Louis Vines pressed on:
“I’m 100 percent sure. I would bet my paycheck,” Smith told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
“We saw him. We’ve known Guerdwich since he was in seventh or eighth grade. The mannerisms were him. It doesn’t make sense. They have to do more investigations for me,” Smith told the newspaper.
“It was shocking, and the question at hand was just why,” Vives told USA Today. “When I approached him, I just wanted to know what was going on. The surprised look on his face gave it away that it was him. … Once he saw a Florida team and players and coaches who knew him, the look on his face was like, ‘Wow, what am I into now?”
I love that the coaches knew Montimere was Joseph mostly because of his style of play. Coaches have this sixth sense when it comes to knowing players’ habits, mannerisms and style of play. Montimere maybe able to act his way through fooling people in day to day life, but a player’s playing style isn’t going to change, and coaches are going to remember the way you play.
On a side note, Montimere has been hired to be the new Assistant Coach with John Calipari–Just Kidding.
