--- title: High School Basketball Player Arrested, May be 30 not 17 description: Canadian border officials arrest high school basketball player and refugee from South Sudan believed to be 30 years old not 17 years old. canonical: https://time.com/4303361/canada-high-school-basketball-jonathon-nicola/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-21T16:39:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:31:44.546Z og:title: This High School Basketball Star Might Actually Be 30 og:description: The South Sudanese refugee has been arrested by Canadian border officials og:url: https://time.com/4303361/canada-high-school-basketball-jonathon-nicola/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This High School Basketball Star Might Actually Be 30 twitter:description: The South Sudanese refugee has been arrested by Canadian border officials twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This High School Basketball Star Might Actually Be 30 by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Apr 21, 2016 4:39 PM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Apr 21, 2016 4:39 PM UTC Canadian border officials arrested a high school basketball player after he was said to be 30 years old, the [_Windsor Star_](http://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/border-officials-arrest-man-who-was-attending-windsor-high-school-as-a-teen) reports. Jonathon Nicola, a refugee from South Sudan, became known in the past six months as the 17-year-old star of the basketball team at Catholic Central High School in Windsor, Ontario. The school even said that [the Detroit Pistons](https://twitter.com/CCHCoachCus/status/675357107647062018?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw) donated clothing and size 16 shoes to Nicola, [The Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/04/21/canadian-high-school-basketball-player-said-he-was-17-authorities-say-hes-30/) points out. The [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=%5FWMAmKmY-zs) below, which shows him playing basketball, has been circulating on social media. Nicola is accused of violating the Immigration Refugee Protection Act, according to the [_Windsor Star_](http://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/border-officials-arrest-man-who-was-attending-windsor-high-school-as-a-teen)_,_ and another hearing on the case is scheduled for next week. The team’s head coach Pete Cusumano, whom the player was said to be living with, and the spokesperson for the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, told the Canadian news outlet that they could not talk about the situation further. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4303361/canada-high-school-basketball-jonathon-nicola/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4303361/canada-high-school-basketball-jonathon-nicola/"},"headline":"This High School Basketball Star Might Actually Be 30","datePublished":"2016-04-21T16:39:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:31:44.546Z","description":"The South Sudanese refugee has been arrested by Canadian border officials","url":"https://time.com/4303361/canada-high-school-basketball-jonathon-nicola/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4303361/canada-high-school-basketball-jonathon-nicola/","name":"This High School Basketball Star Might Actually Be 30"}}]}] ```