Brief break in hockey career was only a pregnant pause

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jan 31, 2002 | by John Branch

DENVER - The hardest part for Jenny Potter is the separation. Mothers and infants aren't supposed to be separated by time zones and telephone wires and uncompromising schedules.

But there is Olympic hockey to be played, gold medals to be won. Life slows for no one.

There is no model plan here. So Jenny Potter is winging it, nurturing a most precious bundle of life while nurturing a dream that can't wait.

Madison Potter was born Jan.5, 2001. A week later, Jenny Potter was skating again. Three months later, she was back playing for the U.S. women's hockey team in the world championships.

In August, she left suburban Minneapolis for the Olympic training camp in Lake Placid, N.Y. Since then, the team has been on a 25- city, 31-game tour - one that ends tonight in Denver - in preparation for the Winter Games.

During the past six months, Potter has been home for just 10 days.

But Potter guesses she has seen Maddy on about half the 180 days along the winding road to Salt Lake, meeting mostly in hotel rooms across the country, where Potter's husband, Rob, would bring Maddy for a family rendezvous.

Potter turned 23 a week after Maddy's first birthday. Sometimes you can't help but think that she is too young to understand this isn't the way things are done. And sometimes you are thankful for that.

"It's been ... life," she said. "I did it, and it's doable. It's not easy, but it's definitely doable."

Truthfully, it wasn't part of the plan. The plan was to play hockey until she couldn't, then have a family. Children were always part of the future, but the future wasn't supposed to be so close.

Potter, formerly Jenny Schmidgall, has been part of the team since 1997. A small, shifty forward, she had two goals and three assists in Nagano, helping the U.S. team to the 1998 Olympic gold medal. She was the team's leading scorer at the world championships a year later.

Hockey was everything. As a freshman at Minnesota, she had 71 points in 32 games. She transferred to Minnesota-Duluth and led the nation in scoring with 88 points in 30 games.

Then she got pregnant.

"I was like, 'Oh my gosh, my parents are going to kill me,'" she said. "That's the only thing I could think of."

At least for the first minute. Then she thought about hockey.

"I wasn't that worried about hockey," she said. "Well, a little bit. But I knew I could always play hockey."

Sidelined by her pregnancy, Potter became somewhat of a consultant for Minnesota-Duluth's team. She finished the first semester of classes and tried to stay in shape before Maddy's arrival.

Between late-night feedings and diaper changes, Potter thought about hockey.

The world championships were in three months. The Olympics were a year away. In her mind, there never was doubt she could handle two disjointed schedules.

Her parents - who didn't kill her, after all - have been part of a large support group, helping care for Maddy to aid Potter's return to the ice.

Everyone has helped, including Rob Potter, chasing his wife around the country with a baby in the car seat. But that wasn't his first job. Rob Potter runs hockey camps and trains prospective NHL draft choices. A year ago, Jenny became a client.

When the U.S. team came to nearby St. Cloud for a week of training, Potter joined in. She considered it a try-out. Coach Ben Smith accepted her back to the team in time for the world championships.

Jenny became the only mother on the U.S. team. Maddy became a mascot.

"Pretty much everyone loves her on the team," Potter said. "They see cute clothes and they have to buy them for her. She's got, like, 20 moms on the team."

That helps make up for some grueling stretches of separation, some lasting two weeks. The toughest was the first, during the 10-day training camp in August.

"I had never really been away from her. At times, it was almost relaxing, because you're not running around. I can't really explain the feeling. You're worried about what you're missing, or that something is going to happen without you. But I guess I've gotten used to that."

But Jenny Potter and Maddy will be in Salt Lake. Although they won't be together - security and a team focused on a singular goal will keep families apart - they will have made it to the same place.

- John Branch may be reached at jbranch@gazette.com