University of Minnesota Athletics
Players Mentioned
Photo by: Brad Rempel
A Tale of Two Sisters
11/1/2018 4:04:00 PM | Women's Hockey
Sarah Potomak and Amy Potomak relish the opportunity to play hockey together for the long-term.
MINNEAPOLIS -- Living, playing, and spending nearly every waking moment with your siblings can be suffocating to some; for Sarah Potomak and Amy Potomak, it's the exact opposite.
"Now that we are playing together for the long term, we get to practice every day together, we get to go over video together, and continue to build our relationship up over time," Sarah said. "As each week goes by, our line gets more special."
This season marked the first that both sisters were able to don the Minnesota jersey and play college hockey simultaneously, an honor that most families never get to experience, let alone do successfully. The pair join Kelly Pannek, captain of the Gopher Women's Hockey team, in a line that has already produced eight goals in only ten games played.
Amy and Sarah have noticeably became a prosperous unit on the ice, visibly making up for each other's weak points to form a successful linemate relationship, only strengthened by the fact that they are sisters. The yin-and-yang balance the pair hold create a calculated dichotomy of on-ice cohesiveness.
"On the ice, she's a big and powerful player, and I'm more quick and speedy. She has great hands, and I find that my vision on the ice is really good," Sarah described.
The sibling bond between the two women is evident to anyone who notices, as they live, arrive at the rink together for practice and home games, and participate in pre-game activities together. As sisters, they have been able to develop nuances and pick up on each other's often-missed idiosyncrasies to the untrained eye.
"With how long we've been playing together, we've gotten to improve and have gotten a lot better at reading each other. Being siblings, we know what bothers us, but also how to motivate each other, because we are so close and we are so comfortable with each other," Amy explained. "If I see she made a bad pass, I know that I probably shouldn't say anything because she probably knows already, and she knows that's the same way for me. When I make a mistake, she does a good job of knowing when to say something and knowing when to hold back and reading the moods of where we are at in the game. I think that's one of the biggest and most helpful parts of playing with your sibling."
Being the two youngest of six siblings, Amy and Sarah found a niche where they were able to complement each other in their own respective ways, both on and off the ice. Growing up together in Aldergrove, British Columbia, Canada, hockey was the way of life. The pair, along with their older brothers, all played within the same minor league hockey program, often going to the rink after school and not leaving until sundown.
"One of the biggest things for us is being so close in age, only two years apart," Amy explained. "Also, since we do have four older brothers, we were the only two girls and the youngest, so we had to stick by each other to handle four boys. We've gone through everything together."
The need for individuality has never been an issue for the Potomak sisters, though. Sarah played for the Golden Gophers for two seasons before Amy joined the team. Both sisters began the 2017-18 season centralized with Canada's National Women's Team prior to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games but were released from the squad before the Olympic roster was finalized. Amy then had the opportunity to develop her own relationship with the Gophers when she joined the Maroon & Gold for the second half of the 2017-18 season while Sarah did not return to campus until the 2018-19 season.
"I think people recognize us as individual players, as far as our teammates go. We do have different personalities, as we have different likes and dislikes, so even though we are very similar, that keeps us apart," Amy said.
With siblings, there will always be some form of competition. Even though the pair mesh well together, room can always be found for a friendly contest, especially in practice. Amy and Sarah have been known to participate in scoring competitions in practice and aim to outdo each other in team workouts as a form of motivation.
"We are both competitive people, but we focus it on making it positive competition to make each other better, whether that be by going out on runs or doing scoring competitions in practice," Sarah said. "When we clash, we bicker for a little bit, but then we get over it."
It's obvious that Sarah and Amy have found success together and individually, between winning an NCAA championship, being the first sisters named and centralized to the Canada's National Women's Team, and playing in several other high profile hockey contests. With all of these high honors, it may be easy to predict a sense of jealousy when one sister is selected and the other isn't. But with the Potomak sisters, there has always been a feeling of joy and support when celebrating the other's success within the hockey world.
"We always support each other and are happy for each other," Amy said. "Supporting each other's successes is something we've always been really good at. Her success is really my success and my family's success too."
Sarah echoed the same sentiment, explaining, "We come from a big family, and since we are all really close, we celebrate each other's successes like they are our own. When something happens to one of us, we are all very happy and take it as a success for our family. Whenever something good happens to Amy, I'm always excited and happy for her."
As for the future, the siblings are excited to see where the coming years take them. After working and training together for a number of years, the Potomak sisters only have the remainder of the 2018-19 and the 2019-20 season to play with each other while wearing the 'M'. This time is not without its own set of goals, and these sisters have every intention of reaching them.
"Our goal is to win a national championship together. I've had the experience of doing that already, so I can do my best to help Amy to reach that goal," Sarah said. "The ultimate goal is to be on the Olympic team together. After this year, we know the things we need to do, so we can work together and support each other through that. We chose to come here together, and playing on Team Canada together was the ultimate honor. We like being together. I think we have a very exciting couple of years coming up."
A very exciting couple of years, indeed.
Sydney Johnson is an athletic communications student intern at the University of Minnesota and a contributing writer for GopherSports.com.
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"Now that we are playing together for the long term, we get to practice every day together, we get to go over video together, and continue to build our relationship up over time," Sarah said. "As each week goes by, our line gets more special."
This season marked the first that both sisters were able to don the Minnesota jersey and play college hockey simultaneously, an honor that most families never get to experience, let alone do successfully. The pair join Kelly Pannek, captain of the Gopher Women's Hockey team, in a line that has already produced eight goals in only ten games played.
Amy and Sarah have noticeably became a prosperous unit on the ice, visibly making up for each other's weak points to form a successful linemate relationship, only strengthened by the fact that they are sisters. The yin-and-yang balance the pair hold create a calculated dichotomy of on-ice cohesiveness.
"On the ice, she's a big and powerful player, and I'm more quick and speedy. She has great hands, and I find that my vision on the ice is really good," Sarah described.
The sibling bond between the two women is evident to anyone who notices, as they live, arrive at the rink together for practice and home games, and participate in pre-game activities together. As sisters, they have been able to develop nuances and pick up on each other's often-missed idiosyncrasies to the untrained eye.
"With how long we've been playing together, we've gotten to improve and have gotten a lot better at reading each other. Being siblings, we know what bothers us, but also how to motivate each other, because we are so close and we are so comfortable with each other," Amy explained. "If I see she made a bad pass, I know that I probably shouldn't say anything because she probably knows already, and she knows that's the same way for me. When I make a mistake, she does a good job of knowing when to say something and knowing when to hold back and reading the moods of where we are at in the game. I think that's one of the biggest and most helpful parts of playing with your sibling."
Being the two youngest of six siblings, Amy and Sarah found a niche where they were able to complement each other in their own respective ways, both on and off the ice. Growing up together in Aldergrove, British Columbia, Canada, hockey was the way of life. The pair, along with their older brothers, all played within the same minor league hockey program, often going to the rink after school and not leaving until sundown.
"One of the biggest things for us is being so close in age, only two years apart," Amy explained. "Also, since we do have four older brothers, we were the only two girls and the youngest, so we had to stick by each other to handle four boys. We've gone through everything together."
The need for individuality has never been an issue for the Potomak sisters, though. Sarah played for the Golden Gophers for two seasons before Amy joined the team. Both sisters began the 2017-18 season centralized with Canada's National Women's Team prior to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games but were released from the squad before the Olympic roster was finalized. Amy then had the opportunity to develop her own relationship with the Gophers when she joined the Maroon & Gold for the second half of the 2017-18 season while Sarah did not return to campus until the 2018-19 season.
"I think people recognize us as individual players, as far as our teammates go. We do have different personalities, as we have different likes and dislikes, so even though we are very similar, that keeps us apart," Amy said.
With siblings, there will always be some form of competition. Even though the pair mesh well together, room can always be found for a friendly contest, especially in practice. Amy and Sarah have been known to participate in scoring competitions in practice and aim to outdo each other in team workouts as a form of motivation.
"We are both competitive people, but we focus it on making it positive competition to make each other better, whether that be by going out on runs or doing scoring competitions in practice," Sarah said. "When we clash, we bicker for a little bit, but then we get over it."
It's obvious that Sarah and Amy have found success together and individually, between winning an NCAA championship, being the first sisters named and centralized to the Canada's National Women's Team, and playing in several other high profile hockey contests. With all of these high honors, it may be easy to predict a sense of jealousy when one sister is selected and the other isn't. But with the Potomak sisters, there has always been a feeling of joy and support when celebrating the other's success within the hockey world.
"We always support each other and are happy for each other," Amy said. "Supporting each other's successes is something we've always been really good at. Her success is really my success and my family's success too."
Sarah echoed the same sentiment, explaining, "We come from a big family, and since we are all really close, we celebrate each other's successes like they are our own. When something happens to one of us, we are all very happy and take it as a success for our family. Whenever something good happens to Amy, I'm always excited and happy for her."
As for the future, the siblings are excited to see where the coming years take them. After working and training together for a number of years, the Potomak sisters only have the remainder of the 2018-19 and the 2019-20 season to play with each other while wearing the 'M'. This time is not without its own set of goals, and these sisters have every intention of reaching them.
"Our goal is to win a national championship together. I've had the experience of doing that already, so I can do my best to help Amy to reach that goal," Sarah said. "The ultimate goal is to be on the Olympic team together. After this year, we know the things we need to do, so we can work together and support each other through that. We chose to come here together, and playing on Team Canada together was the ultimate honor. We like being together. I think we have a very exciting couple of years coming up."
A very exciting couple of years, indeed.
Sydney Johnson is an athletic communications student intern at the University of Minnesota and a contributing writer for GopherSports.com.
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