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SportsPrepZone Editor

Being part of Team USA in each of the last four winter Olympics is just part of what makes Anoka resident and Edina native Jenny Potter, as one fan put in on a sign – Super Hockey Mom.

The 31-year-old mother of two and wife of Rob Potter, Coon Rapids girls’ hockey coach, is coming off an outstanding run, yet again, with the U.S. National team that garnered a fourth medal, just not the color they hoped for after Team Canada blanked the U.S. 2-0 in the gold medal game on Feb. 25.

She became the team’s all-time leading scorer after the first game of the Olympics, collecting five points and the first of back-to-back hat tricks. Potter tied Eagan-native and Team USA captain Natalie Darwitz with 11 points in these Olympics, giving Potter 26 points over 17 games and four medals, one goal, two silver and one bronze.

“Yeah, it wasn’t what we were hoping for and they fell short,” Rob said about earning the silver medal instead of the gold. “But what is happening is that she seems to be getting stronger and better each year. I wouldn’t say her performance has gone down at all. If anything she’s gotten better.”

Women’s hockey players still have limited options when it comes to post-high school and college teams. And those looking to join up with the national team have to find ways to stay sharp and continue to improve their craft are brought into the post-graduate hockey program like the Women’s Western Hockey League’s Minnesota Whitecaps or the USA Hockey’s National Residency Program that housed the team for over a year prior to the Olympics at the National Sports Center in Blaine.

“I think with me helping her out on the training end of it and being able to find a place to play 70 to 80 games a season like she’s been able to do between the two programs has really helped her grow as a player,” Rob said.

A Feb. 26 Washington Post story looked at the future of the highest level of women’s hockey. The piece, written by Treresa M. Walker, described the uncertainty of who will be back on the ice in 2014 and if even the sport will be part of the games in Sochi, Russia, given how much further ahead the top-two teams in the world are (Canada and the U.S.).

Potter and Angela Ruggiero were the veterans of the team and the only players to be part of each Olympic women’s hockey tournament.

Finding where to go from Vancouver was hard for both to answer so soon after the loss, after so much build up in time, money and effort to reach the pinnacle of the sport.

Jenny told the Associated Press, “It’s really tough sitting here right now to make that decision and figure out what I’m going to do. My husband sacrificed a lot for me to keep playing hockey, and (I’ll) basically evaluate when I go home with my family.”

Given the uncertain outlook of the future of the women’s game in the Olympics and the lack of financial stability found on the women’s side of playing professionally after college, Potter’s future with the team remains uncertain.

“But we decided we wanted to talk about (the future) after (the Olympics) but no, we haven’t talked about anything yet because she hasn’t come home yet and she’s off again to Los Angeles (March 2),” Rob said.

“It would definitely be nice if she could keep playing and we could make a living, but there’s a lot to be looked at and discussed because our number one goal is to save enough money in our savings account.”

Rob and Jenny own Potter’s Pure Hockey, a training program in the area that has worked with several top-level players including Jenny’s national team teammates and college players.

Rob said getting the summer training camps organized is next on his agenda. “I know we’re going to get the summer camps going again this summer because that’s how we make a living right now,” he said. The camps run from June through August.

Vancouver

Reflecting on the most recent games, Rob said much was the same from the first Winter Olympics he attended in Nagano, Japan, but in the same breath so much has changed over the dozen years.

The Potters have grown by two children and instead of being the newcomer to the team, Jenny has become the crafty veteran the younger skaters look up to.

“Vancouver is a really nice town, but a lot of the things are the same,” he said. “The transportation was much better than in past Olympics which made it a lot easier to get around and Proctor and Gamble had a real top-notch place for the families to go with a Pampers play room and Pringles play room.”

The P&G building gave athletes and their families a chance to meet up for a few moments before heading out in their different ways. A New York Times article described the inside of the Pringles Bar as, “imagine shelves with canisters of chips in every flavor imaginable (and a few, like cheeseburger, that are incomprehensible).”

“The kids had an absolute blast playing at the Proctor and Gamble House, especially in the transit stations too,” Rob said.

The most memorable part of the trip for Maddie and Cullen came during a combined men’s and women’s national team dinner one night. “We rode in a coach bus with the guys over to this really nice place that overlooked the Olympic flame and harbor and the kids were more interested with this deck that overlooked Vancouver and the mountains instead and what was out there,” Rob said.

“They had these large heaters that you could sit around and so the kids found these chop sticks and one of the guys in the kitchen found marshmallows so they were roasting marshmallows all evening.”

Being in Vancouver for the games didn’t necessarily mean watching bobsled in person.  “We watched a lot of the events on TV because it’s actually a lot better than trying to follow the action at the venue, especially the sliding events,” Rob said.

Rob and his father-in-law, Dwayne Schmidgall, were able to catch three of the men’s hockey games in-person, two involving the star-studded Russian squad as they faced Slovakia and the Czech Republic before the first Sweden-Finland game. “It was our little vacation time away from the kids from a while,” Rob said.

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