JEFFERSON TWP — Celina Sanks always considered herself a basketball player.

For as long as she could remember, she was never far away from the court.

Little did she know that a different kind of court would be her true calling.

Sanks was hesitant to give volleyball a whirl in the seventh grade, but she reluctantly gave in and signed up for the junior high team in the South Butler School District.

On the first day of practice, she was utterly lost.

“I had no idea about volleyball,” Sanks said. “None. I had no idea what I was doing.”

But Knoch High School volleyball coach Diane Geist saw something raw in Sanks, even on that first day as she struggled to grasp the basics of the sport.

“She’s just naturally athletic,” Geist said of Sanks. “Even as a seventh grader, you could see something was there.”

Sanks blossomed quickly as a ferocious hitter at the net. Last year as a junior for Knoch, she averaged 13.1 kills per match.

She double digit kills in all but three matches and cracked the 15-kill mark on six occations.

Sanks also was excellent on the serve.

She didn’t waste any time deciding her future fate. Two weeks ago she verbally committed to attend Eastern Kentucky University to play volleyball.

The 5-foot-10 hitter was pleased to get her college search out of the way before her senior season at Knoch.

“It was a huge relief to finally be done with the process,” Sanks said.

She said everything about Eastern Kentucky fit what she was looking for in a school.

“The team, the coach, they are all family oriented,” Sanks said. “And that was very important to me.”

Sanks, who will major in apparel design and merchandising, was also fond of the academics at Eastern Kentucky.

Now Sanks can concentrate on honing her already considerable volleyball skills.

Sanks made the difficult decision this year to give up basketball to focus solely on volleyball.

“I played basketball my whole life, so that was tough,” Sanks said. “But I don’t regret it.”

Sanks is already hard at work trying to improve her jumping ability and strength.

Sanks comes from an athletic background. Her father, Tony, played basketball and was a track athlete and her mother, Mary Jo, is also an accomplished runner. Two years ago, Mary Jo ran in the Boston Marathon.

Tony helps his daughter with her workouts and Sanks also plays on a club volleyball team.

Geist said she is going to enjoy the final year she has with Sanks.

“She’s a coach’s dream,” Geist said. “She’s just getting better and better. In the front row or the back row, she’s just a very good all-around player.”