Wilks opts for prep school

~ Central's leading scorer from this past season is attending Pioneer Christian Academy near Nashville, Tenn.

Darnell Wilks, one of the top basketball players in the area this past season at Central, will not finish his high school career with the Tigers.

After leading the Tigers to the Class 5 district finals as a junior, Wilks has enrolled at Pioneer Christian Academy, a college preparatory school in the Nashville suburb of Whites Creek, Tenn.

Wilks, a 6-foot-7 forward, averaged 19 points and 10 rebounds a game last season, his second year at Central. Wilks had received interest from Division I schools such as Memphis and Wake Forest as well as Missouri, Arkansas State, Southern Illinois and Southeast Missouri State.

Reports on scouting-related Internet Web sites in June claimed Wilks was headed to Pioneer Christian and would be reclassified to graduate in 2008. While Wilks was absent from Central when the school year began, a school administrator said Central had not received any transfer papers from another school as of Wednesday.

Pioneer Christian basketball coach Carl Reed confirmed on Thursday that Wilks was attending Pioneer Christian, but he did not wish to comment further.

The loss of Wilks will leave first-year coach Drew Church without a key weapon come November. Church took over the program this summer after Derek McCord resigned to take over the Dyer County, Tenn., position.

"That's out for my control," Church said Thursday about Wilks. "He chose to go to another school and we wish him the best. You can't dwell on that. He's a great player, but we're looking to the future. We're not looking to the past."

The Tigers lost just one starter from last year's squad to graduation, second-leading scorer David Deisher.

But forward Jeremy Kimble, who started and averaged 7.3 points per game this past season as a sophomore, transferred to Dyer County.

McCord said the transfer was somewhat coincidental. Kimble left Cape Girardeau in a family move and was relocating to Dyersburg, Tenn., when McCord took the position at the nearby school.

"You would rather have him on your team than playing in the conference against you," McCord said.