West Potomac All-Star Jalen Dawson Commits to Glenville

Last year’s , Jalen Dawson, fell in love with basketball at age 4, but before he graduated from West Potomac High School, it became increasingly clear that the market for college basketball players under 6’ tall was slim.  

So the soon-to-be 19-year-old player signed a letter of intent to play football for the Division II Glenville State Pioneers in West Virginia.

“We wake up at 6.30, have breakfast, have a position meeting, then we practice for an hour and a half, then we have lunch, then after that we have a 90 minute break, then we have to be back on the field at 2p.m., and practice until 5 or 6, and then we have dinner,” said Dawson.  

“Then after dinner we get a 40 minute break, then we go to another team meeting, then another position meeting, and that doesn’t end until 10.30 or 11p.m. and that after that it’s lights out. It’s football 24-7, 7 days a week.”

After averaging more than six catches per game and racking up 1,000 yards receiving in his senior year, Dawson was recruited by several schools including West Liberty, Concord, Charleston, and others.  But he said Glenville representatives seemed most excited about what he could bring the team.

Last year the Glenville Pioneers went 5-6, but this year the team is returning with most of their starters. The team, opens its season at home against Carson-Newman on September 1st.  Dawson has been playing halfback and will find out any day whether the team will red shirt him for his freshman year, thus preserving an additional year of eligibility.

“I think it is best for me to red shirt, because there’s a lot of upperclassmen on the team and they’re pretty good,” Dawson said.  “It’d be great to learn the offense, get stronger, faster and prepare myself for next year.”

If he is red-shirted, Dawson will still continue to work out and practice with the team as a kind of understudy.  In the meantime, he’s adjusting to life away from home for the first time.

“In college, it’s just like being a freshman in high school all over again,” he said.  “If there are footballs on the field, we have to get them and then put all the equipment away and stuff like that, but the upperclassmen have been pretty nice to us, they haven’t made us sing or go through any rookie hazing, at least so far.”

Dawson would love to play in the N.F.L. someday, but he says that football is “plan b.” For now he is focusing on earning a degree in either sports marketing or sports medicine, which he hopes will give him the ability to support his family, whether he plays football professionally or not.

“Football is life in a sense,” he said.  “It humbles you. I came up here and had to go against a really good starting safety and he kind of knocked me on my butt. I got back up- football teaches you to do that.” 

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One in a continuing series on how local residents are pursuing their version of the American Dream.

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