Ex-Menlo star Drew Edelman going pro in Israel

Edelman graduated from Menlo School in 2013, after earning Daily Journal Girls’ Basketball Player of the Year honors earlier that year. She initially played at USC, but didn’t see much playing time through two underclassman seasons. Excelling in academia, though, helped her find a second basketball after she earned a bachelor’s degree in communications in just three years.

“I knew I wanted to keep playing but I just didn’t know where,” Edelman said. “I just kind of kept my options opened.”

After taking a redshirt her third year at USC, Edelman was recommended by her former AAU coach Mark Anger to UCSB head coach Bonnie Henrickson. With two years of eligibility remaining, she transferred athletically to play for the Gauchos while enrolling in the master’s program at UCSB.

“I was so grateful to have an opportunity to play for Coach Henrickson,” Edelman said. “Going from USC, where I feel I didn’t really have an opportunity, I just went in with a really positive outlook … to help any way I could.”

In two years at UCSB, Edelman shined. In 2017-18, she finally realized her potential as a Division I post player, averaging a double-double in Big West Conference play (16.8 points per game, 10.5 rebounds per game) while overall totaling 16.2 ppg and 9.6 rpg en route to being named a first-team All-Big West Conference forward.

Edelman also earned UCSB’s top student-athlete award two years in a row, being recognized with the Golden Eagle Ring as the highest GPA of any women’s athlete at the university. In her final year, Edelman achieved a 3.96 GPA.

Through the summer, Edelman played two games in the San Francisco Bay Area Pro-Am League women’s league season with Paye’s TNT, run by her former high school head coach John Paye. It was the first time Edelman suited up with Paye’s TNT since 2013, following her senior year at Menlo.

“I’ve really been excited about seeing Drew work so hard,” Paye said. “She was down at Menlo the entire summer working in the weight room and down on the court shooting. So she’s really getting herself ready for her first pro season in Israel. … It was neat to have her back around and just how fit she’s getting.”

Paye has coached in the Pro-Am League since the inception of women’s basketball on the renowned summer circuit in 1995. His team in the inaugural 1995 season, South Bay, took runner-up honors in the postseason. This year, Paye’s TNT was eliminated in the first round.

Most teams on the Pro-Am circuit don’t bring aboard high school players. This is where Paye bucks convention though. As did Edelman following her senior year at Menlo, three recent high school players took the court for Paye’s TNT over the summer, including recent Menlo graduate Mallory North — on her way to play Division III college basketball at Occidental College — incoming Menlo sophomore Avery Lee, and recent Pinewood graduate Hannah Jump, who is set to begin her college career at Stanford later this year.

“Players see and play with women that are at the top of their field,” Paye said of the advantages of younger players taking on the Pro-Am ranks, “ players that are bigger, stronger, faster and more skilled.”

For Edelman, the Pro-Am games were a way of staying in shape prior to A.S. Ramat HaSharon’s season opener Oct. 22.

While Edelman is a native of Sunnyvale, she was granted dual citizenship in Israel via a process known as “Making Aliyah,” a formal sponsorship by the Israeli government to work in the country. Edelman said she was officially granted her dual citizenship last week.

A.S. Ramat HaSharon is one of 24 teams in the Liga Artzit, the third tier of professional women’s basketball in Israel. The second-tier league is the Liga Leumit, with the top tier being the Israeli Basketball Premier League.