High school basketball star arrested after officials discover he's a 25-year-old-man
High school coaches have been known to bark at their players to “man up”.
This probably isn’t what they’re talking about.
Sidney Bouvier Gilstrap-Portley dominated the high school basketball scene in Dallas this season.
And with good reason. You see, Gilstrap-Portley, who played under the alias of Rashun Richardson, was actually 25 years old, not 17, as he claimed.
He originally enrolled at Skyline High School pretending to be a Hurricane Harvey refugee.
During the school year, he transferred to Hillcrest High School.
Dallas Independent School District spokesperson Robyn Harris told The Dallas Morning News that this was a calculated move by Gilstrap-Portley.
“He took that as an opportunity to gain access to our schools,” she said. “He was fairly savvy to be able to utilize that type of position, knowing that we were accepting Harvey students.”
Amazingly, he actually enrolled as a freshman, and nobody seemed the wiser.
The alleged perpetrator had already played college basketball at Dallas Christian College, The Morning News said, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that he was voted the District 11-5A offensive player of the year for Hillcrest.
Incredibly, Gilstrap-Portley was able to continue his mirage for the entire season.
While at the school, he even dated a 14-year old “classmate,” according to the girl’s mother.
Apparently, his ruse fooled everyone.
KXAS reported that ISD Superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa said he saw Hillcrest this season and didn’t notice anything strange.
“He didn’t look any different than the other students, you know,” Hinojosa said.
Hinojosa was shocked by the revelation regarding Gilstrap-Portley’s true identity, and vowed that something like this won’t happen again.
“We need to make sure we follow better protocols to try and prevent this from happening, but unfortunately this was almost like a perfect storm,” he said. “To the parents, I apologize. You send your kid to be safe at school and to participate in extracurricular activities and this should not happen.”
Gilstrap-Portley was busted when the coaching staff from North Mesquite High School noticed him playing in a tournament in April.
According to Harris, the head coach from Mesquite told his Hillcrest counterpart that “one of my former players who graduated a time ago is playing for you”.
Gilstrap-Portley, who reportedly has no prior criminal history, was arrested last week, and faces a charge of tampering with government records.
He is currently out on bond, court records say.
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