College basketball player from Atlanta Dai-Jon Parker drowns in Indiana

A college basketball player from Metro Atlanta drowned Thursday in an Indianapolis reservoir Thursday, authorities said.

Dai-Jon Parker, 22, played basketball at Milton High School in Fulton County before playing at Vanderbilt and then at the University of Indianapolis.
 
"Dai-Jon was probably one of the best athletes that I've ever had the opportunity to coach," former Milton High School head basketball coach David Boyd said. "He was just a dynamic player and had a great personality. We're just so sad to hear that he passed away. I'm still kind of in shock."
 
Boyd said Parker came to Milton as a 10th-grader after his family moved from Louisiana to escape Hurricane Katrina. He played for Milton for three years and led the team to three straight state basketball championship finals. They won it all in 2010.
 
"Everybody loved Dai-Jon," said Boyd, who now coaches at East Jackson High School. "He had one of those smiles that was just incredible."
 
Indiana authorities said it appears that Parker was not wearing a life jacket while riding an inner tube being pulled behind a pontoon boat on Morse Reservoir just north of Indianapolis. Witnesses said that when he was tossed from the tube, he never resurfaced.
 
Boyd said he's been in contact with several of Parker's former teammates, and everyone is in shock.
 
"It appears that he had a strong faith, and his mother did," Boyd said. "So we're confident that he's resting in heaven right now."