NBA player Micah Potter and his wife Elle Potter, a D1 volleyball standout, on Monday kicked off a four-day opportunity for rising athletes on Guam to learn more about their sport.

Harvest Christian Academy brought the Potters to Guam.

The 6’9″ Micah Potter is a power forward and center for the Utah Jazz, while his wife Elle Potter is a Division 1 college volleyball standout from Loyola University Chicago.

The couple is hosting the Potter NBA x D1 Next LVL Sports Camp for grades third through 12th at Harvest Christian Academy from June 23 to 26.

Planning for the sport camp started in January when one of Harvest Christian Academy’s assistant basketball coaches, Titus Baugus, reached out to Micah Potter.

At the same time, Potter’s father, Tim Potter, a pastor speaking at a Harvest church event, introduced the idea to the school’s pastors.

“I’ve known Titus for years, and he brought up the idea of my wife and I coming out here and running some sports camps,” Micah Potter told the Pacific Daily News on Monday. “When he told me about it, it was during the season, so I was more focused on the season.”

But once the season ended, “things came to fruition,” the NBA player said.

“And within about two weeks, all the details came together. We prayed about it, and we decided to commit to it, and here we are, and we’re really excited,” Micah Potter said.

‘Talent only gets you so far’

The main goal is for the participants to leave with a winning mindset they can use outside of sports.

Statistically, very few athletes continue to play college sports and fewer advance to professional leagues.

Micah Potter’s focus instead is to help participants understand the value of hard work.

“You can have a lot of talent, but talent only gets you so far, and then once you get to that point, you have to make sure your work backs up your talent,” he said. “[We want] to instill the detailed mindset that it takes, the drive that it takes, the sacrifice that it takes. I’m not saying every one of these kids are going to make it to that level, because, statistically, it’s just not gonna happen.”

But in any aspect of life, he said, that mindset will help them.

“Whether it’s their regular job, helping raise their kids, or treating their wife, husband, boss, or coworker with respect, all of those attributes apply to every aspect of life, so we’d love to be able to help these kids understand that,” Micah Potter said.

Faith at the core

Besides skill, technique, and the proper mentality, Micah Potter’s greatest hope for the camp is instilling faith at the core of athletic training.

“We don’t want this camp to be a drag, or too hard that they won’t enjoy the sport that they’re playing,” Micah Potter said. “Elle and I are both excited to teach these kids the love for the game that we had. On top of that, we really want them to know where our true identity comes from and where our true joy comes from, and that’s our relationship with Jesus.”

He continued, “We want them to have fun [and] develop their skills in the sport that they’re coming for, whether it’s volleyball or basketball, [but also] we want them to understand the love that Jesus has for them.”

Goal, purpose

Josh Thaler, the athletic director at Harvest Christian Academy, expanded on this goal and the difference between a person’s goal as an athlete and their purpose as a Christian.

“One of the things I instill in my players is winning is the goal, never the purpose,” Thaler said. “Micah’s career is literally based on trying to win as much as possible, but that’s never his purpose in life, that’s not why God made him. God made him to honor God and to live his life for Christ, but the number of wins or the number of losses is never going to take that away from Micah. Christ is such an important part of our lives that’s going to overflow in every aspect that we do and in every conversation we have.”

As Micah Potter attributes much of his success to his faith, he wants to share what biblical themes he believes has helped him succeed with aspiring athletes.

“The main priority is that it’s a sports camp, but that’s like 1a, and 1b is the Christian themes that go along with applying to sports,” Micah Potter said. “My wife and I, our identity comes from Christ, not from our sport, and the only reason that we were able to make it to the levels that we have is because of our relationship with Jesus.”

“There’s so many biblical principles that apply to doing things the right way — having a good attitude, self control, discipline, work ethic, doing all of that for the glory of God — and we’ll make sure that that is an emphasis,” he added.

More can still join the sports camp

Although the camp is underway, spots are still available for anyone that wants to join.

Additional information and how to register can be found at http://hcaguam.org/summer.

There is also a free admission event for teens on Friday, June 27.

Harvest Christian Academy said it will host an open basketball and volleyball tournament for camp participants and others who want to play and meet the Potters before they leave.

This story will be updated.

WARSAW, Poland — Christiana Williams led the sprint field at the Halina Konopacka Classic (WACT Bronze), clocking 11.23 seconds (+2.7 m/s) to win the women’s 100m. The Jamaican, Rio 2016 Olympic Games finalist, edged Brazil’s Gabriela Mourao and the USA’s Gabriele Cunningham, who both finished in 11.40.

Polish sprinters Magdalena Niemczyk and Magdalena Stefanowicz were next in line, each stopping the clock at 11.44. Austria’s Magdalena Lindner followed with 11.45, while Aleksandra Piotrowska (11.53) and Marlena Granaszewska (11.76) completed the top eight.

In the field, Valarie Allman claimed a clear victory in the women’s discus. The American threw 68.87m to finish ahead of Cuba’s Yaime Perez (64.71m) and Lithuania’s Ieva Gumbs (61.86m).

World indoor champion Claire Bryant of the United States won the women’s long jump with 6.91m (+0.8). She held off Serbia’s Milica Gardasevic, who jumped a wind-aided 6.81m (+2.5), and Poland’s Nikola Horowska, who registered a personal best of 6.65m (+1.7).

In the women’s 400m, Paris Peoples of the United States edged out Poland’s Justyna Święty-Ersetic, 51.65 to 51.73. Gianna Woodruff of Panama took the 400m hurdles in 54.91.

Ukraine’s Yuliya Levchenko won the women’s high jump with a clearance of 1.92m. Poland recorded two wins on the track through Sofia Ennaoui in the 1500m (4:07.08) and Alicja Sielska in the 100m hurdles (12.87, -0.6).

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Ryukhov and Mastikhin overcame China’s third Liu Yuan and Mao Yuan 2-0 (21-19, 21-16) in the final of the men’s competition.

It’s worth noting that the Kazakhstanis’ triumph marked the country’s historic first gold medal in this Asian Age Group competition.

As reported previously, Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan ousted Daniil Medvedev to claim the singles title at the ATP 500 Terra Wortmann Open in Halle, Germany

Nathan Beitler/MDN
Haleigh Carr competes at the North Dakota Class A state track meet at the Bismarck Community Bowl earlier this year. Carr won the triple jump state title as a junior and will be continuing her athletic career at North Dakota State in the fall.

On display in a plaque in Haleigh Carr’s room is the medal she won her junior year, forever crowning her a high school track and field state champion.

The 2024 triple jump champion from Minot High still remembers that day vividly, but said it took her several weeks to fully come to the reality of what she had accomplished. Especially when she considers that a career in track and field almost never happened had it not been for the combination of some less-than-subtle jabbing by a middle school friend and her high school wrestling coach.

“For the longest of times, my middle school best friend kept asking me to do track and I was like ‘No. Why would I run for fun?’” Carr said. “But then in 8th grade I was like ‘Sure, why not?’ I was never really interested in it until my friend continuously begged me to do it with her.”

Carr began her track and field career in eighth grade, but stuck specifically to the track events. She competed in the 100-meters, 200m, 100m hurdles, the 4x100m relay and the 4x200m relay at Jim Hill Middle School. She competed in the same events when she arrived at Minot High as a freshman, spending most of the year competing at the junior varsity level, running a few events at the varsity level in the 100m and 200m.

It wasn’t until the following year that Carr broadened her horizons to the field events, electing to participate in both the triple jump and the long jump at the request of her wrestling coach during a practice one day in the winter.

“I started jumping my sophomore year because I do girls wrestling in the winter and we were doing power skips and my coach asked me if I jumped in track and when I said no, he said that I should try,” Carr said. “So I thought about it and I decided to try it and I just kind of fell in love with it from there.”

While she was willing to do the triple jump and the long jump, the high jump was an event she could not be peer pressured into. Carr said she took one look at the bar on the high jump and immediately said no.

As a sophomore, Carr participated in four varsity meets in the long jump and five varsity meets in the triple jump, including her first appearance at the state meet in Bismarck, where she placed 16th in the triple jump with a distance of 33-feet, 7.25-inches. Carr would return to the state meet the following year, and leave a champion.

Her experience at the state meet her junior year didn’t start the way she would have liked. The first day, Carr had failed to record a successful attempt in the long jump, committing a foul on all of her jumps. While it stung, in a way it gave her a sense of perspective that helped ease her mind.

“The day before, we did long jump and I scratched all of my jumps, so going into triple that next day I just wanted a mark,” Carr said. “I wouldn’t say I didn’t care about it, but I was just going in with a very open mind. I just wanted a mark.”

Carr was in the second-to-last flight in the qualifying round. She was in 10th place after her first jump of 34-5.75 and jumped up seven spots to third after a second jump of 35-9.50. On her final attempt of the qualifying round, Carr hit a personal best at the time of 36-10.5 to set the best mark of the qualifying round and advance to the finals as the top seed. Her jump was eight inches farther than second place, which belonged to Fargo Davies’ Cayla Sailer.

In the finals, Carr’s first two attempts came in at 36-9.25 and 36-7, and no one had yet to best her previous mark from the qualifying round. That was until Grand Forks Red River’s Sophie Brakke set the new distance to beat at 36-11.25. But Carr’s title aspirations wouldn’t be denied, and in her final jump, Carr became a state champ with a new personal best of 37-3.75.

“It was such a surreal moment,” Carr said. “It took me a long time to finally sink in that I actually won. It was probably a couple weeks and it was just very surreal to hear all the cheering and see everyone in the crowd.”

Carr credits her coaching staff with helping her achieve her true potential. While head coach Disa Julius has been there for the entirety of Carr’s high school career, she has had a different jumping coach each year.

“They’ve all helped me in different ways and our head coach is a big support as well as our sprint coach and our hurdle coach,” Carr said. “I feel like they’re a very well organized and communicative coaching group and it reflects positively on their athletes.”

One would think winning a state title would be Carr’s most memorable moment from her track and field career, but it wasn’t. In fact, it wasn’t even her most memorable moment from that season. That came on May 3, 2024, following the Howard Wood Dakota Relays in Sioux Falls, S.D., nearly 500 miles from home.

“We had the worst bus ever and the windows were broken and it was raining outside so it was raining in the bus,” Carr said. “And on the way home our tire blew and we were stranded and we didn’t get home until 3 a.m. It was a very weird experience at the time, but looking back at it, it was my favorite.”

Carr said the team had to wait for a bus from Bismarck to make the long trek down to South Dakota to pick them up. Carr was sitting toward the back of the bus when the bus started smelling like smoke and the floor began heating up. Eventually the driver pulled off to the side of the road and called in for help. It would take the bus from Bismarck about 90 minutes before it arrived to take them the rest of the way back to Minot.

This year’s state track meet marked the end of Carr’s high school track and field career, but she is far from finished with the sport she never thought she’d pick up in the first place. Carr committed to North Dakota State in May and will compete in both the triple jump and the long jump for coach Dennis Newell next season. Carr said she also had interest from a couple Division II schools in Minnesota, as well as from UND and Minot State, but ultimately went with the Bison.

“I liked the campus of NDSU and all the facilities they have and the coach was super nice as well as the athletes,” Carr said. “I just felt really at home when I was at NDSU.”

Carr plans to major in exercise science and hopes to fulfil her pre-med prerequisites so she can go to med school when she completes her undergrad. Her dream is to become an orthopedic surgeon. Her favorite classes at Minot High were the medical electives, specifically the medical careers class, where she had the opportunity to go to hospital clinics and view all the medical careers in person.

“I was going to major in biology because that’s the typical medical school major, but I knew I wouldn’t like it and I just love everything about sports medicine,” Carr said. “I think exercise science is more tailored toward the sports medicine aspect than biology would be.”

With a couple months remaining in between the end of her high school career and the start of her college career, Carr is doing what most kids her age are doing in the summer: hanging out with friends and relaxing in her room scrolling through TikTok videos, with that state championship medal in the background.