Pickerington has always been known for its world-class athletes that leave a legacy like none other. It’s not uncommon for Pickerington basketball players to go on to play professionally. And the winning tradition has continued even since Pickerington High School split into two schools in 2003.
The Pickerington Central High School girls basketball program has taken home the championship trophy seven times. The Central boys program won a championship game in 2012.
Pickerington North boys basketball has won two district championships and been the regional runner-up twice. The North girls basketball team has won six district championships and has once been regional runner-up.
Here are some of the outstanding athletes who helped win the titles:
Tamara Stocks
Tamara Stocks, 41, is a former college and professional basketball player who attended Pickerington High School in the ’90s.
Stocks was named high school All-American by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. After graduating high school, she went on to play basketball for the University of Florida. She became one of the team’s all-time leaders in points and rebounds.
In 2001, the Washington Mystics picked Stocks in the second round of the WNBA draft. She played one year in the WNBA before taking her talents to the international level.
In 2006, Stocks signed with the Icelandic women’s basketball league called Úrvalsdeild kvenna on the Grindavík team. She played the last two regular season games averaging 33.5 points per game.
Stocks’ basketball skills run in the family – she follows in the footsteps of her father, James Stocks, who was the first African American basketball player to graduate from Murray State University in Kentucky.
Now retired, Stocks lives in Atlanta with her husband and three sons. She earned her Master of Science in positive psychology at Life University in Atlanta. She uses this degree to help athletes overcome psychological barriers that would otherwise prevent them from being the best that they can be.
Stocks is also on the board of directors for the Saved by the Ball Foundation. This foundation was designed to show student athletes the career paths that are available to them in a basketball- related field.
LaToya Turner
LaToya Turner attended Pickerington High School where she led her team to USA Today’s national championship in 1998. Turner also won two Division I titles at her alma mater in 1997-’98 and ’98-’99.
She was named Ms. Basketball Ohio in 1999, an award given to the best high school basketball player in each state. Turner then went on to play at The Ohio State University, where she averaged 19.5 points and 10 rebounds per game.
Turner suffered many knee injuries that would eventually derail her basketball career. She was red shirted in her sophomore year to recover from knee surgery and missed much of the 2000-2001 season due to surgery for a torn ACL.
Turner graduated from OSU in 2003 and continued playing all over the world. She has played professionally in Turkey, Spain, Israel, Italy and Slovakia.
She still holds the high school record of career blocked shots, which stands at 293.
Marscilla Packer
Marscilla Packer went to Pickerington High School and was named the 2002 Metro player of the year. She scored more than 2,000 points during her high school career and was voted most valuable player two years in a row. Packer still holds the school record for single-game points (46) and most three-pointers in a game.
Packer went on to play at OSU from 2004-2008. She helped the Buckeyes win their fourth-consecutive Big Ten championship. She is OSU’s third-leading career three-point shooter at 40.7 percent.
After graduating in 2008, Packer helped Team USA take home a gold medal in the International Basketball Federation World Championship in Moscow.
She was drafted in 2008 by the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA draft in Tampa, Florida. She was the 41st overall pick in the draft.
Today, Packer owns MP Hoops LLC, a program in southwest Ohio, for student athletes to work on their basketball skills and learn how to be better on and off the court.
Caris LeVert
Caris LeVert is a 24-year-old pro basketball player who graduated from Pickerington Central in 2012. He led his high school team to a 26-2 record and won the 2012 OHSAA Division I State Championship.
He then went to the University of Michigan and played four seasons, averaging 10.4 points a game and helping lead his team to three NCAA Tournament appearances, the National Championship game in 2013 and Elite Eight in 2014. LeVert became the 64th Wolverine basketball player to appear in more than 100 games and was only six wins away from the Wolverine record of 104 career wins.
After graduating from the University of Michigan, LeVert was drafted in 2016 by the Indiana Pacers but was quickly traded to the Brooklyn Nets in exchange for Thaddeus Young. LeVert has appeared in 168 NBA games, being in the starting lineup 61 times.
In November 2018, LeVert suffered from an injury in his right leg during a game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. He was later diagnosed with a subtalar dislocation to the right foot. He missed 42 games and returned in February 2019.
LeVert, No. 22 on the Nets, says after his basketball career is over, he would like to be a basketball coach.
This year, shortly after it was announced LeVert was traded to the Indiana Pacers, it was announced LeVert will be out indefinitely after an MRI revealed a small mass on his left kidney during a physical prior to finalizing the trade. LeVert will undergo further medical tests and more details will follow as needed.
“On behalf of my family and myself, we want to thank the Indiana Pacers for their support and guidance,” LeVert says in a statement. “We are grateful for their extreme thoroughness during the physical process and I am looking forward to joining the team and being part of this great organization as soon as possible.”
Jae’Sean Tate
Jae’Sean Tate, 25, went to Pickerington Central and played basketball and football.
His junior football season was cut short because of a shoulder injury, so he focused on basketball from then on. Tate was teammates with LeVert and the duo led their team to a record of 26-2 and won the 2012 Division I Championship.
After graduating from Central, Tate went on to play basketball at OSU. Tate was a Big Ten All-Freshman Team selection and was also a Big Ten Honorable Mention selection. Tate finished his time at OSU as the 19th-leading scorer with 1,152 points.
In 2018, Tate went undrafted in the NBA and decided to join the Milwaukee Bucks for the 2018 NBA Summer League.
However, a finger injury left him unable to play. In 2018 he played with the Antwerp Giants in the Belgian Pro Basketball League. There, he was selected as one of five of the best offensive players. In 2019, he signed with the Sydney Kings in Australia for the 2019-2020 National Basketball League season.
Last November, Tate decided to come back home to the States and signed a three-year contract with the Houston Rockets.
Maddie Gehring is an editorial assistant. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
