Feb. 5, 2003

What a difference a knee injury makes. Collegiate and professional athletes get hurt so often and return to form that we rarely think of it as changing their lives. Still, for high school athletes, such injuries can alter the paths that they have set for themselves. For Colgate women's basketball player Jamie Glenn, a knee injury her senior year in high school has had a profound effect on the path that her life has taken.

"My big sports in high school were track and cross country," says Glenn. "I also played basketball, soccer and softball but really I almost went to college for running, not basketball. I could've gone to Florida State or the University of South Carolina on a full ride. I was getting a lot of offers to run track."

Still, the hard-court kept calling Glenn. She had been a part of the New Jersey Group II State Championship team as a freshman and her team seemed to be headed back there her senior year. "My senior year was just going great," says Glenn. "My best friends were on the team because it was made up of practically all seniors. None of us had basketball as our first sport but we were all good athletes so we weren't really a structured team but we were the scrappy team no one wanted to play. We were gonna get to every loose ball and turn every game into a cat fight. We were doing really well and then I tore my ACL."

With the injury, a lot of things changed. Going into the basketball season, Glenn had decided to try to play basketball in college. "Actually, I was looking at Lehigh a lot for basketball," claims Glenn. "But the whole recruiting process was really difficult. I could never go on any official visits because of cross country. So I kept thinking that maybe I should just go to school for running because I could get a full ride and my parents wouldn't have to pay. Plus, the FSU coaches said I could try out for basketball if I wanted to. Then I hurt my knee, so some of my options were down the tubes."

That's when Colgate came calling. "I think they dropped a recruit," says Glenn. "They called me really late, like in February and I have no idea how they even heard of me. I think maybe an assistant at the time was from my area. So they called and said they wanted to see me and it was a week after I tore my ACL so I told them that I would play again but it wouldn't be for a about month. Still, they wanted me, so I came up on spring break for a visit and no one was even on campus. I never even met the head coach, just Beth who was an assistant at the time. So I really had no idea what I was getting myself into."

Glenn chose Colgate over several schools based on its strong academic reputation and because it was on opportunity to play Division I basketball. Still, when she got to Colgate, she realized that not only had her options before college changed but her options afterwards had as well. "The hardest thing coming into college was coming off the knee surgery," says Glenn. "In high school my strength was my speed. I was the quickest one on the court and I was a point guard. When I came to college I became a post player and I was a step slower so I had to really completely change my game and my mentality.

She also found that her days as a starter were gone. "I don't think I ever felt physically ready to be a starter in college," she explains. "I've had so many problems with my knees that I was just never going to be a regular starter. But I don't mind being a role player. Of course I wanna get my shots and if I'm in position for a lay-up I'm gonna take it but I like to pass the ball off to other people and put them in a position to score. I love playing down low and posting up but I still have the guard mentality. I think that's something I really bring to this team. I'm always okay to get the assist and my favorite things are grabbing rebounds and taking charges. If I take an offensive charge that just gets me really pumped."

Her senior year has brought with it another knee injury, a torn meniscus and another surgery, her sixth. With the end of her collegiate career fast approaching, Glenn finds herself working hard to get back on the court and to finish her degree off of it.

While still unsure of what the future holds for her professionally, one thing is certain, if she shows her job the same persistence and dedication she has shown her playing career, she's sure to be a success.