Four months after a Deadspin investigation claimed a Rockville, Maryland, high school basketball player might be 20 years old, Montgomery County Public Schools concluded that Jimmy Sorunke was not in violation of high school’s age restrictions.
An MCPS spokeswoman confirmed to the Washington Post that their own investigation found the circumstantial evidence against Sorunke was “insufficient.”
A man named Joe Boncore told Rockville High School’s head coach that he was Sorunke’s legal guardian. When shown a blog post hyping up a 20-year-old Nigerian basketball player named Olujimi Sorunke Abayomi, Boncore first said he was a different player than Jimmy Sorunke.
But he later changed his story to say it was an effort to get Sorunke recruited by American colleges, but that Sorunke was indeed born in 2001, not 1997.
Sorunke turned 17 this summer but will be a sophomore at Rockville next year and be allowed to play on the varsity basketball team. Sorunke helped Rockville win a district championship last year, one season after the Rams went 2-22 without him.
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
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