Published: June 09, 2010
BY DAVE LAWRENCE
sports@goochlandgazette.com

Glen Dandridge wants to play basketball.

Nothing, not even a devastating foot injury in his junior year at Missouri, kept the Goochland resident off the court. It’s a good thing, too, for Dandridge is now playing professional ball for the Rochester Razorsharks of the Premier Basketball League and – as has happened time and time before – getting recognized for it.

In the final week of the Razorsharks’ 2009-10 regular season, Dandridge, was named the PBL’s player of the week after a 19-point performance against the Vermont Frost Heaves and 24 points in a victory against the Puerto Rico Capitanes. The wins clinched a No. 2 berth for the Razorsharks in the league playoffs.

Despite the fact that the Razorsharks lost a best-of-three championship series against Lawton-Fort Sill, Dandridge, a shooting guard and small forward, had a good year.
How could he not? It’s his profession.

“I’m just happy to be getting paid to play basketball,” Dandridge said. “Play pro basketball and get paid for it – doing something that you love and just having fun and getting a check for it.”

Big things were expected of Dandridge early on. He played his freshman year at Goochland High School before transferring to Mount Zion Christian Academy in Durham, N.C. One of the reasons he transferred was for the opportunity to travel.

“Just being able to go to Vegas, California, all different places in high school and being away from home is a good experience,” Dandridge said, then explained why. “Just being able to mature more. I mean, being away from home as a teenager, with no parents around, I matured very quickly.”

In 2004, Dandridge’s senior year, Mount Zion finished second in the nation to perennial prep powerhouse Oak Hill. Dandridge himself was ranked among the top 100 high school recruits in the nation.

Dandridge played three years at Missouri before a foot injury sidelined him for most of his junior year. He had played too many games to redshirt that year, and not happy with his prospects, decided to finish off his college career at Lambuth University in Jackson, Tenn.
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“If I could have red-shirted, I could have repeated my junior year of on-court play and had my junior year and senior year to play,” Dandridge said. “But by the time I tried to red-shirt, I had already played too many games my junior year. … I didn’t want to sit out a year. If I would have transferred to another school – another D-I school – I would have had to sit out a year and then play my senior year after.”

By transferring to Lambuth, a Division II school, he was eligible to play without skipping another year. The competition was good, as was his year. Lambuth reached the NAIA quarterfinals. Dandridge, who averaged 15 points and five rebounds that season, was named first-team NAIA All-American.
Dandridge’s professional career began with a workout in Washington, D.C.

“In the beginning, it was just warm-ups, just ball-handling, shooting, layups, just showing your athleticism, showing that you can shoot, showing that you can play,” Dandridge said. “In the middle of it we played five-on-five games, about four games. In the end we came together and talked to each team. If they were interested in you, they’d come and talk to you.”

In fact, someone talked to his agent, Pedro Power with Merle Scott United Sports. Within days, Power told him he’d been offered a contract with the PBL’s Halifax Rainmen, one of a handful of Canadian teams in the league.

“It felt great. It’s an opportunity to play pro basketball,” Dandridge said of the contract offer. “Plus it was in a place that I had never been – that was another great opportunity.”

One thing Dandridge learned shortly after his arrival in Nova Scotia is that it can get cold up there. Still, he didn’t let the temperatures and rain dampen his enthusiasm.

“Before I went there, I worked extra hard so I’d be prepared,” Dandridge said. “The guys were older, but it was still basketball, and when you’re on the court, it doesn’t matter because you’re going to play.”
This year, Dandridge joined the Razorsharks as a replacement for Sammie Monroe.

“Glen has been nothing short of a positive influence on our team,” said Rochester head coach Rod Baker. “He was a scorer and rebounder which we sometimes took for granted. He has great team ‘smarts’ and took well to our style of play. We lost a great player and Glen was able to step right in. We never missed a beat.”
Dandridge, while making plans for life after basketball, isn’t planning to give it up any time soon.

“I’m just basically playing,” Dandridge said. “Whenever I’m on the court, it’s just fun for me. I try to have fun, whatever is going on in the crowd, in the stands, I just kind of tune it out and play basketball. That’s kind of my get-away zone.”