Jesuit High School head football coach Ken Potter is one win away from moving into a tie for, and two wins away from becoming the state’s winningest head football coach.
While honored by the prospect of passing legendary Dayton High School coach Dewey Sullivan, the 37-year Crusaders coaching stalwart is more about the work than the game’s end result.
“It’s not something I ever thought about or tried to achieve,” Potter said. “It’s wonderful and I feel very honored, but it’s really about trying to do the best you can and give it everything you have, and I’ve just been really fortunate.”
Humble words from a man who over the past four decades has become Jesuit football.
Since taking the job at the private Beaverton school in 1987, Potter has a career record of 351-86, one win short of Sullivan’s 352-84-2 coaching mark, and has won 22 Metro League titles and four state championships. But while the wins are great and he’d prefer them over the alternative between the lines, it’s what goes on beyond the gridiron and having properly aligned priorities that the coach prides himself in preaching to his teams.
And those priorities are simple for Potter: God and family first, education second and athletics third.
“We try to talk all the time about keeping things in perspective and keeping your priorities, and knowing what those priorities are,” Potter said. “The kids hear that enough that they probably get sick of it.”
Potter is the son of a coach and brother to another. His father, George Potter, spent 43 years teaching and coaching football in Athena, Sandy and later Bend in Oregon, along with Sunnyside and Centralia in Washington.
His brother Gene is the longtime Jesuit boys basketball coach who is a legend in his own right, winning seven state championships in 32 seasons at Jesuit.
Ken will tell you he’s the product of both his dad and brother’s coaching acumen, and in fact, touts them as the truly legendary Potters.
“I’m probably the third best coach in my family,” Potter said. “My dad coached for 40 years, and my brother, he’s a phenomenal coach and I’ve been really lucky to be able to bounce ideas off of him.”
One of the things Ken, his brother and his dad talked — and in the case of Gene still talk — about are the players, or in their case, kids who play for them.
Much has been made in recent years of the changing dynamic between today’s kids and the coaches responsible for teaching them their chosen game, along with mentoring them into quality young men and women. Potter says that while there certainly are differences today versus when he got in the game nearly 40 years ago, he believes that contrary to popular belief, the kids aren’t that dissimilar.
“I don’t think kids are all that different,” Potter said. “They want to work hard, they want to be acknowledged for how good they are, they want positive reinforcement, they haven’t changed. The things around them have, but I think they’re mostly the same.”
Yet, he has had to adapt, and one way in which he’s done that is through heightened communication with both his players and their parents, which he says he’s always made it a point to do, but now he simply does it more.
“There’s more communication now,” Potter said. “More letting people know why and what you’re doing, and why it’s beneficial. That’s not how it used to be, but you know, you have to adapt and I think that’s good.”
That’s not to suggest that his teams are all the same, for that couldn’t be further from the truth. Every year brings different personnel, different opposition, and of course different personalities that he aspires to coach into successful teammates on and off the field. And it’s those challenges that invigorate Potter before every football year.
“Every year is a different kind of year, but the anticipation is the same and I’m always looking forward to being around the young men, the coaches and putting our best foot forward,” the coach said.
Some of those young men are now coaching against their one-time mentor.
This past season, 2010 Jesuit graduate and first-year Mountainside High School head coach Keanon Lowe faced-off with Potter in the second-to-last week of the regular season for what amounted to a Metro League championship game. Potter got the best of his former protégé, but said that facing Lowe, while difficult, was truly his pleasure.
“I’m not sure how fun it is, but it’s an honor,” Potter said. “Keanon (Lowe) is one of the best leaders and best people I’ve ever been around in my life, and I couldn’t be more honored that he is coaching. I don’t think it’s because of me, but I think it’s an honor that I may have played a part in that.”
Potter said he has countless memories from his tenure on the sidelines, but none he could pinpoint as his favorite.
Sure, the state championships were great, league titles are always memorable and Potter has coached a lot of talented players over the years. But for him it always boils down to the kids and commitment they’ve made to the program that he’ll always appreciate and remember.
“Obviously, when you reach the pinnacle, winning a state championship, it’s great, but I look back at games when kids came out of the woodwork and came through, and just left it out there,” Potter said. “I just appreciate the kids. Every team I’ve had I appreciated how they worked and what they’ve given.”
And it’s that return that has the coach still enthusiastic about the job.
“I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t have the same excitement and joy,” Potter said. “I really enjoy football and think it has a lot of meaning in life. So, as long as I’m still benefitting kids and helping them be better people, I want to keep doing that job.”
Does that mean he’s still got a few years left in him? As of now. But if that enthusiasm ever wanes, Potter said he’ll know it’s time to call it a career.
“I take it one year at a time, but if I ever wake up and I’m not excited to go to work, I’ve got to get out,” Potter said. “But at the moment, I’m excited, I feel good, my health is good and I still love it.”
Jesuit opens the 2024 season on Sept. 6 at Tualatin.
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