Cooks can finally stop dreaming after securing a scholarship with Utah State University.

The 19-year-old leaves Australia tomorrow and will hit the training court with his new team-mates almost immediately after touching down.

"It's real exciting. Playing college basketball is something I've always wanted to do since I was little," he said.

"It's always been something that's been in the future, so I'm pretty excited it's actually going to happen."

Cooks, a 190cm left-handed guard who might not be finished growing, is a product of the strong Illawarra junior system. He represented the region from under 12 to under 18 and eventually captained the NSW under 20 team.

The son of Wollongong coach Eric Cooks, "Dom" would be in the Hawks squad if he hadn't pursued a college career. However, he didn't rule out the pair eventually linking.

"It's definitely a possibility," the former Holy Spirit College student said.

"It'd always be fun playing with Dad, but that's a long time away at the moment."

Carving a successful basketball career is a major goal for Cooks jnr.

But he is determined to take his schooling seriously and earn a degree in international business.

"The basketball program's real good. It's a real competitive school and they've been to nine consecutive post-seasons, but academics-wise it's a real good school as well and that's really important to me," he said.

"I'm going over there to study as well and I really want to get a degree out of it, so if I can't play basketball I'll always have something to fall back on later on in life.

"If I'm lucky enough to play professionally somewhere in the world, it'd be great, but I want to have the option of being able to come back and work here."

Cooks snr believes his son will make the most of his scholarship.

"It's been something Dom has aimed for since he's been able to talk to tell us," he said.

"The school looks good, the coaches seem very positive. Basketball-wise it's about striving to get the most out of it you can, but academically it's very important to come back with a degree.

"He wants to play sports for a while but you don't know what the future holds, which is why the degree is half the battle, because you need that for life and he's focused enough to know the importance of that."