Jenny Potter
Each month, iParenting.com spotlights a mother who inspires and moves us,
who embodies the qualities that we all admire in a person, a woman and a
mother. Above all, the Mom of the Month is dedicated to her children. Rich
or poor, famous or not, she shines as an example of what mothering is all
about.
Meet October's Mom of the Month, Jenny Potter. She starts her day skating. Then she cares for her daughter, lifts weights, does her calisthenics and shoots pucks. Shoots pucks? That’s right. Potter is a two-time Olympic hockey player who is training for the 2006 Olympics.
Of all her accomplishments and awards, Jenny Potter – nicknamed “Mom” by her teammates – acknowledges the best thing to ever happen to her has been the birth of her daughter, Madison. Born between the 1998 and 2002 Olympics, "Maddy" began skating with her mother at the age of 1. Between daily practice schedules, interviews and media sessions, Potter enjoys spending time with Maddy – just taking walks, going to a movie or spending a few hours at the Science Museum.
Finding time together is not always easy. While Jenny is often away training with the Olympic team for several weeks at a time, she continues her daily regimen on her own during the occasional week or two at home. She admits free time is not always available.
The former Jenny Schmidgall grew up in Edina, Minn. –, a hot bed of hockey enthusiasts. She recalls her parents putting her in skates along with her two sisters starting at the age of 2. There was a small outdoor rink just a few blocks from their home that provided family together time.
Her mother taught her father to skate when he was an adult, and he enjoyed the new skill enough to skate with several local men’s hockey teams. Young Jenny loved to get out on the ice with him when he practiced and played.
An avid athlete from a young age, she was a competitive swimmer for a number of years and played football until the boys “got too big to play with.” So in eighth grade, she officially joined a girls’ hockey team. From there, both her hockey interest and career soared.
Jenny played college hockey with the University of Minnesota, Duluth. As a college player, she received many hockey honors including several years named as a Top 10 Finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award. In 1997, she was a member of the silver medal Three Nations Cup Team and began a pre-Olympic tour.
“I was very young,” she recalls of that first Olympic experience. “The entire tour was about youth for me – wide-eyed and new,” she says. “Playing against Canada in front of 15,000 spectators, and the whole Olympic village experience of meeting other athletes – it was all so exciting.
“The greatest moment was meeting Wayne Gretzky and having my picture taken with him," she says, recalling when she met the U.S. men's hockey team. "Then I discovered that during our team’s gold medal game, my parents were sitting right next to him in the stands. That was amazing.”
Of all her accomplishments as a player, her personal favorite moment was being named Most Valuable Player for the ’99 Worlds. As a team, the best moments were winning the 1998 Olympic Gold Medal and the NCAA Championship.
Jenny Schmidgall met Rob Potter before her first Olympics. They met, of course, during a hockey training session, and she asked him out. In 2001 they married, and Madison was born. In 2002, Potter's Olympic team won a silver medal.
Potter's second Olympic experience was different from her first. She was older, married, a mother and best of all, playing in the United States in front of hometown fans. While this Olympics was special, it was more difficult to find free time. Potter was continuing her studies in Duluth at the time, and Rob was in Minneapolis due to his work schedule. Many hours were spent back and forth in travel.
Hockey isn’t just a shared interest for the Potters; it’s a shared career. Rob trains hockey players – including Jenny. Together they coached a high school girls’ hockey team last year.
Rob continues to coach that team, but Jenny is training for the next Olympics, so this is not a coaching year for her. Madison will travel to the 2006 Olympics with grandparents, but at the moment, Rob’s attendance is questionable. “His high school team has a shot at the state championships this year and that would be at the same time as the Olympics," says Jenny. "I think it’s very important that he be there for his high school team. Some people don’t understand that, but he is so supportive of me and what I do, just as I am supportive of his coaching.”
What does the future hold for the Potter family? “We take it one year at a time,” says Jenny. “I would love to continue playing hockey for as long as I can, but I also want to help Rob with his training business. We’ve also talked about a second child.”
Jenny continues to skate, train, coach youth hockey programs and speak on motivational topics such as commitment and athletic focus. Will Madison become a future hockey star? Jenny laughs and says, “Only if she wants to.”
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