By Mark Janzen

I'm quite certain when I went to interview Amy Potomak on her family farm in Aldergrove, B.C. last summer, she was more interested in chatting with my three-year-old daughter than me. Check that – I know this was true. 
 
Amy naturally and seemingly subconsciously gave my daughter a simplified and hockey-esque nickname. My daughter's name is Everly. Amy called her Evs. Let's just say, Amy is still very much Everly's favourite hockey player. 
 
Partway through the interview – the one with me and Amy – we took a pause so Amy could grab Everly a few Ritz crackers for a snack. This solidified everything. Amy was a hero.
 
If you know the youngest of the Potomak family, none of this sounds unfamiliar. She loves being with kids. She has three nieces and two nephews who are all under the age of four and they too are her biggest supporters. They're the ones sitting at the glass wearing Potomak on the back of their jerseys. After witnessing their first-ever hockey game in person, of course Amy gave them a puck and labeled it – like one does for a first-ever goal – to mark the historic moment. 
 
I say all this because this is, simply put, Amy.
 
She cares for people and, clearly it's not just kids. The star forward for Trinity Western's women's hockey team cares for a whole program of people who have become family.
 
It's why Potomak will defend her teammates on the ice – she has an edge that isn't to be trifled with – and she'll support them in any way she can off the ice. 
 
It's why when she decided to transfer back home to play for Trinity Western University this past fall, she fit in, and she flourished.  
 
"Amy has taken it upon herself to make sure her teammates and linemates feel good and they have extremely positive conversations," says TWU head coach Jean Laforest. "She's so supportive and she has helped with the mentorship of leaders and has demonstrated some really positive personal traits as a competitor and a teammate and that's something that's going to stay within our program for a long time."
 
Because of who she is as a person, we're almost 300 words into the story and we've barely even talked about hockey. 
 
To be clear, she's really good at that too. 
 
Transferring from the University of Minnesota, where she starred with the Division I powerhouse Gophers for four seasons, Potomak joined a Spartans program that was entering just its second season at the U SPORTS level. In doing so, she helped elevate TWU into the playoffs for the first time ever while, individually, finishing tied for third in scoring in Canada West, with 12 goals, and tied for fifth in the conference in points, with 24. For her performance, she became the first Spartan women's hockey player to earn a year-end conference honour, as she was named a Canada West Second Team All-Star.
 
Yet, her numbers and accolades won't be the legacy she leaves. 
 
In her one and only year with TWU, she helped build the foundation of a program that is now on the precipice of big things. 
 
She's a player with international experience wearing the Maple Leaf and a wealth of big-moment familiarity – my gosh, three years ago, she was on ESPN's Sportscentre as the Play of Day for a ridiculous through-the-legs goal with the Gophers – and she decided to join her sister Sarah Potomak, who is an assistant coach with the Spartans, and bring that know-how to TWU. 
 
"I really loved the culture of the team and the atmosphere," she says, when asked last summer why she decided to come home to TWU. "I always wanted to build a program here in Canada and help grow the game."
 
She's done exactly that. 
 
Potomak played a role in helping a two-win Spartans team, in 2021-22, turn into an 11-win team in 2022-23. 
 
"When you have a player who has been through those types of experiences, that just feeds into our program," Laforest says. "She can draw upon situations and previous experiences and that's exactly what has occurred. 
 
"She has taken players under her wing and made our team better this year and for the future. Building our culture and having someone who understands the off-ice workings of a program was a big gift for us."
 
This is Amy. 
 
On the ice, she has been a target for the opposition, tactically and, most noticeably, physically. She's learned to deal with it and, as she says, "taken it as a compliment" to her abilities. Having been through the rigours of a physically-challenging Canada West season, she's better for it and, moving forward, with her hockey-playing ambitions still eyeing the international ice, she's added a few new tools to her set.
 
"It was really difficult at the beginning," she says. "But my patience grew and I eventually figured that I must be doing a good job if teams are doing that." 
 
Laforest adds: "I think this year has been great for her in terms of her evolution as a player," 
 
And she did it all this – the scoring, the battling, the leading, the building, the having fun and the being friends – while getting sick more often during this season than ever…which, she admits makes sense. 
 
This is what happens when you hang out with little nephews, nieces and Evs all the time.