St. George’s hires Wilkes as next boys basketball coach
St. George’s has hired FACS coach Dee Wilkes as its next basketball coach, the school announced in an email to parents on Wednesday afternoon.
Wilkes brought the First Assembly Christian School from a bottom-of-thebarrel team in the Division II-A West Region to a state-championship caliber team, during his 16-year run as head coach.
After leading the Crusaders to a state championship in 2022 and runner-up finish in 2020, Wilkes and FACS won a state title this past season, defeating Providence Christian Academy 57-55 in Cookeville last month.
Despite returning just about every player from last year’s team, Wilkes felt now was right for his career to look at other options.
“Just a new challenge,” Wilkes told The Commercial Appeal of why he left FACS. “We were set up to run it back and maybe get more championships, but the time in my career it was just better for me and my family.”
St. George’s isn’t unfamiliar territory for Wilkes, who said he has two kids at St. George’s now and three nephews and a niece who attend the school. His oldest son, Kobe Wilkes who played on the 2022 title team at FACS, also went to St. George’s from kindergarten until seventh grade.
His plan is to bring St. George’s up to the same standard he brought FACS. St. George’s hasn’t been at the TSSAA Division II state tournament since 2017 and hasn’t won a title since 2015.
“Same way I built it (at FACS),” Wilkes said of his plan to rebuild the Gryphons’ program. “Get out, go to games and build the program the same way I did at FACS.”
Reach Wynston Wilcox at wwilcox@gannett.com and on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @wynstonw__.