By BETSY BLANEY and SCHUYLER DIXON

Associated Press

ODESSA, Texas -- A lot of guys dream about going back to high school and recapturing their athletic glory days. A man who went by the name of Jerry Joseph did it, police say, and now he's in big trouble.

Authorities say the boyish-looking 22-year-old posed as a 16-year-old sophomore phenom to lead the Permian High School basketball team to the state playoffs. He was jailed on fraud charges, and the rabidly competitive West Texas high school that inspired the movie "Friday Night Lights" may have to forfeit its season.

"Everyone just thought he was a big guy," said Permian senior football player Steven Pipes. "He played the part good, skipping down the hallways acting goofy like a 16-year-old."

Pipes and some teammates approached the 6-foot-5 player they knew as Joseph soon after he enrolled last year, asking him if he wanted to play football. Pipes said Joseph, who was attending a junior high at the time, declined. He liked basketball instead, and he was good enough to average about 20 points per game over the final nine games heading into the playoffs, where Permian lost in the first round.

Joseph was a starter and played center and forward. But suspicions about the player's identity first arose when three Florida basketball coaches familiar with a former player named Guerdwich Montimere recognized him last month at an amateur tournament in Little Rock, Ark. Montimere, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Haiti, graduated from Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale in 2007.

School officials and immigration authorities initially believed Joseph when he denied the allegations and let him remain enrolled. But school police and immigration agents confirmed Montimere's identity Tuesday. When confronted, he confessed, said school district spokesman Mike Adkins.

Montimere was arrested and charged with failure to identify himself to a police officer. He posted $500 bond Wednesday, said Ector County sheriff's Sgt. Debbie Bruce.

If convicted of the misdemeanor, he could face a maximum of six months in jail and a $2,500 fine. Bruce said there was no record of an attorney for Montimere.

Montimere presented himself as Joseph after moving to Odessa in February 2009 and enrolling as a ninth-grader at a junior high. He showed officials a Haitian birth certificate indicating he was 15 and claimed he lived with a half-brother in the dorm of a local university, Adkins said.

After admitting the person was a friend, not his half-brother, Montimere moved in with Permian boys basketball coach Danny Wright when the friend left the state last summer, Adkins said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Wright declined to comment, citing a directive from school officials.

Moments later while speaking with a substitute teacher who had Joseph in classes this year, Wright said he felt compassion for the young man.

"I genuinely love that kid and wish him the best," he told the teacher, Liz Faught.

The University Interscholastic League requires forfeiture of any games involving an ineligible player. The league will wait to hear from local officials before determining if any other punishment is necessary.