VIDALIA — Torrey Dixon’s heart is still with basketball, but it is that same part of his body that is keeping him off the court.

The former Vidalia High School standout suffered a heart attack April 9, 2011, and he continues to wait on the go ahead from doctors to attempt to make a collegiate comeback.

Meanwhile, Dixon said he is feeling healthy and is ready to begin studying computer science at the University of Louisiana-Monroe. But he still misses the game, and there are only a few perks to not being able to play, he said.

“I do get to spend more time with my family, and my friends and my girlfriend,” Dixon said. “But that’s really the only positive thing about it. Other than that, I hate it.”

Dixon will start class in January, and he said he plays basketball from time to time with friends, but he took a long break from the game during the fall after Vidalia topped Natchez in an alumni game in July.

“I haven’t really played ball all that much,” he said. “I’ve just been relaxing at home and trying to get things together to go to school.”

Dixon is ready to start his first semester at Louisiana-Monroe, but he said basketball is still not out of the picture for him, and there is at least one Warhawks coach that knows Dixon’s abilities, he said.

“There’s a coach at ULM who we played against my senior year,” Dixon said. “He knows what I’m capable of, and the only thing that’s stopping me is (medical) clearance really.”

Dixon may also take a family vacation this summer to see one of the best heart specialists in the country to get another medical opinion, he said.

But until then he is excited about focusing on his schoolwork at his new university, and will continue to hope that one day he can make it back on the court, he said.

“I don’t know what God has in store with me,” he said. “But I know he would not do anything to hurt somebody, and whatever direction he sends me will be in my best interest.”