Austin Hough: Acknowledging an omission

Oct. 13—I need to take this space today to say I'm sorry to Jason Potsander.

Last week, Goshen College held its homecoming convocation in the campus church. Part of the ceremony was honoring two Champion of Character Award recipients, which are given to one male and one female alum that played sports for the school.

This year's honorees were Potsander and Katie Sowers. The latter, to me, was a big deal, as she had been the first female and first openly gay person to coach in a Super Bowl. It was also her first time back at Goshen College since she had graduated, which was a big deal given her time at GC did not end on the best of terms.

When I saw she was going to be returning to Goshen, I knew I wanted to write a story. My conversation with Sowers went great, and I think the story came out well.

But I didn't take time to talk to Potsander or acknowledge his story, which I regret.

So, I want to share his remarkable journey in this space.

Potsander is a 2001 Goshen College alum. He ran for the cross country and track teams during his time as a Maple Leaf. He married his wife, Heather, and the two moved to Alaska after graduation to start a family and serve for the Mennonite Board of Missions in Anchorage in 2003 and 2004. They lived in Alaska for nearly eight years.

He eventually moved back to the Goshen area, recently working as an elementary school teacher at Chamberlain Elementary. Potsander has always been active, but arguably his best athletic achievements have come since his stage IV pancreatic cancer diagnosis three years ago.

In 2020, Potsander achieved something very few people have ever done — biking the equivalent of Mount Everest in a 24-hour period. Potsander rode up-and-down a hill in Onekama, Michigan, until reaching the 29,029 feet that the height of Everest is. As of the time he did it, less than 7,000 people had ever accomplished the feat.

Potsander has gone through at least 17 rounds of chemotherapy during his life. Yet, through it all, he has continued to live his life to the fullest.

"On one hand, cancer did not affect my life at all," said Potsander in a 2020 article in The Record, Goshen College's student newspaper. "I kept doing all the good things I love and value, despite any circumstances, feelings, or side-effects from chemo. However, cancer did help accentuate my passions for life, namely, family and bicycling. I resolved even more strongly to give 100% in the things I put effort into in my life, no matter how I feel."

Potsander still trains and competes in endurance-based bike rides today. He's done plenty of winning in the sport as well, winning the Michigan Gravel Race Series in 2021 with his "Cancer Be Damned" team and the Lumberjack 100 mountain bike tandem division in 2022 with the team as well.

In 2020, the Goshen College cross country program renamed its Heart Award to the "Jason Potsander Character Award," which recognizes one male and one female athlete within the program that has withstood challenges.

All of this is to go back to the first line of this column: I'm sorry, Jason. I did not focus my story from Friday at you at all, and that is a regret on my part. My main focus going into the day was doing a story on Sowers returning, and it blinded me from writing about any of the other honorees at the event.

This is probably a good time to give a shoutout to the other three people awarded at the convocation: Dan Miller and Evelyn Dueck for the Culture of Service Award, and Stefon Luckey for the Young Alumni Servant Leader Award. All three have done great things with their lives, and I encourage people to go to the Goshen College website to read more about their accomplishments.

But this column is for Potsander. And it's also for me to acknowledge I should've done more last Friday. I don't regret writing my story on Sowers. However, I do regret not focusing it on both Champion of Character recipients.

They have both done amazing things with their lives, and they both deserve spotlight in the newspaper because of it.

Austin Hough can be reached at austin.hough@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2360. Follow him on Twitter at @AustinHoughTGN.