25 Year Old High School Basketball Player?
College basketball season is in full swing. Its always amazing to me how many of the new 17 and 18 year old freshmen recruits that are right out of high school, play with such maturity. Well in one case in Dallas, there was a good reason. He was actually a 25 year old man.
His “name” was Rashun Richardson and he was a guard playing for the Hillcrest High School basketball team. He would sometimes drop 30 points or more in a game. He led the Hillcrest basketball team to the playoffs this winter, and earned the district offensive player of the year award.
The problem was the supposedly 17-year-old was actually a 25-year-old man named Sidney Gilstrap-Portley, and he was just looking for a second taste of athletic glory. Gilstrap-Portley allegedly told officials he was a refugee of Hurricane Harvey and homeless. Dallas school superintendent Michael Hinojosa says in those situations, the district temporarily waives ID requirements.
But after nine months in the Dallas school system, one of Gilstrap-Portley’s former coaches finally came forward and tipped off authorities. Last month, Gilstrap-Portley was arrested and charged with tampering with government records.
Impersonating a child to play basketball is one thing, but what is worse is that investigators are also looking into reports that he had a 14-year-old girlfriend. Personally I don’t understand how this could have could went on for so long.
He is now out on bond, however if he had not been caught he would have been nearly 30 when he graduated high school for the second time. And who knows what would have happened to the girlfriend. Not good!
For the full story check out the LA Times HERE:
