[01/04/01] Chris Wilhelms will transfer to Hinds Community College but will have to sit out this season, the former Vicksburg High star said Tuesday.

One semester at Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis was enough, he said.

“There was just too much to do,” said Wilhelms, who ended his first semester with 11 credit hours, one short of the minimum needed for him to play this spring at Hinds. “I was on the wrong track.”

Wilhelms’ said off-the-field distractions affected his school work and his baseball.

Southwest coaches initially tried to turn the junk-ball left-hander into a closer, a role he had never played before. In his first outing, an intrasquad scrimmage, he struck out the team’s top hitter, but said he started to get uptight.

“I was trying too hard to impress the coach into getting a starting job,” said Wilhelms, who was a Vicksburg Post All-County selection as a senior.

In two fall games, he said he pitched well enough to get by, but could never get accustomed to pitching from the bullpen.

“You have to have a different mindset,” Wilhelms said. “As a starter, you have all game to work, but a closer, you have just one chance.”

Now, he’ll get a second chance at a school that recruited him.

Hinds, which made it to the Junior College World Series two years ago, recruited the lanky lefty when he was a VHS senior.

“(Coach Rick Clarke) was there with arms wide open,” Wilhelms said. “This time I had to come back on my knees and ask for a chance.”

Wilhelms said he will commute to the Raymond school in the spring, then move full time in the fall. He said he will work out at Waterways Experiment Station, where his dad works, to stay in shape.

The possibility of assisting Vicksburg coach Jamie Creel is also in the back of his mind.

“If coach wants help, I’ll be the first one there,” said Wilhelms, who will not be playing baseball in the spring for the first time since he was 7. “If they need tips, they can come to me. I’ll share my knowledge.”

Wilhelms went 5-3 with a 1.88 ERA as a senior.