Jenny Potter has been named the new head coach of the Ohio State women’s team.
Potter, who is just the third coach in Buckeyes’ team history, replaces Nate Handrahan, who resigned in March.
“We are extremely excited to welcome Jenny Potter to the Ohio State family as the head coach of the women’s hockey program,” OSU associate athletics director for sport administration Shaun Richard said in a statement. “Her experience in the sport of hockey as a highly decorated player both at the NCAA and Olympic level will give the student-athletes an instant winners’ mentality.”
“I am very excited for this opportunity,” Potter added. “The Ohio State University has a storied tradition of academic and athletic excellence, and I look forward to contributing to this standard of excellence. I am proud to be a Buckeye, and I look forward to coaching and mentoring these young women.”
Potter recently completed her second season at the helm of the Trinity women’s program. She led the Bantams to their first NESCAC conference championship and second NCAA tournament berth in program history, as the squad concluded the 2014-15 campaign with an overall record of 18-7-2.
A native of Eagan, Minn., Potter was a standout at Minnesota Duluth for three years and at Minnesota for one year. Earning All-America honors in all four seasons, she won an NCAA title with the Bulldogs in 2003.
Potter is also a Minnesota-Duluth Athletic Hall of Fame inductee and three-time Patty Kazmaier Award finalist. She ranks as the Bulldogs’ all-time leading scorer and shares the NCAA record for goals in a game with six. In the 1999-00 season, she not only led the nation in scoring, but also was named the WCHA’s Most Valuable Player, an accolade she again received in 2002-03.
Potter, a longtime player and contributor for the United States national team, began making a name for herself on the international stage as a player in the first Olympic women’s hockey tournament. Registered as the second-youngest player on Team USA, she helped guide the United States to a gold medal at the 1998 Olympic Games. Potter went on to skate in three more Olympics, claiming silver medals in 2002 and 2010, when she was also team captain, and a bronze medal in 2006.
In 2010, she led the U.S. in scoring, became the first Olympic player to net hat tricks in back-to-back games and set a U.S. single-game record with five points.
In 1998, Potter and her husband, Rob, founded Potter’s Pure Hockey, a development program for high school and professional athletes. Through Potter’s Pure Hockey, she has trained and coached more than 30 women for the women’s national and Olympic hockey teams, as well as approximately 600 male and female athletes who advanced to collegiate, NHL and Olympic teams.
