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This story is part of our June 2022 CoSIDA 360 package, to view more stories,
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From the Desk of CoSIDA President Cindy Potter – Hard work and gratefulness gets you everywhere
by Cindy Potter – 2021-22 CoSIDA President
Columbia College (Mo.), Senior Deputy Director of Athletics @CougarCanuck
In 2006 I was offered my first full-time position at Columbia College for $26,000. I cried and immediately accepted the offer. It was more than just a job to me. It was a chance to remain in the United States and work, at least for a few years. I was pushed to go to the CoSIDA Convention that summer and at 24 years old, I showed up in Nashville with no clue as to what I was doing. It’s now 16 years later, and I’m still not sure I know what I’m doing, but I do know that this journey has been one wild ride after another. It’s almost my turn to get off this ride, but before I do I want to share my why.
That summer in Nashville I saw the CoSIDA board of directors sitting up on stage during a luncheon. I told myself that I wanted to be up at that table one day as a board member. A few years later that became reality as I was selected for an at-large position. Those three years were interesting to say the least, as I felt like I had so much more to give CoSIDA but things changed so drastically in my life outside of board work, it was hard to balance both.
Fast forward to 2016 when I submitted my application for CoSIDA’s third vice president. I remember thinking that there was no chance I would be selected to serve the membership as an officer, but I was going to try anyway. Herb Vincent was selected that year. The next year Sam Atkinson. By year three I figured I already had everything written up, why not give it one last shot? I was speechless when I received the call from Doug Vance letting me know I was chosen and as cliché as it sounds, that phone call changed my life.
Sounds dramatic, right? Well, it’s true. I got married the second year I served on the board as an at-large rep and had my daughter the following year. That was a piece of cake compared to these last four years! This would be different as my kids were three and four when I became Third Vice President. I was the Associate Athletic Director that handled all sports information, compliance and athletic aid for a department that had 260 student-athletes. I had one graduate assistant and a great group of students and game day workers that made things possible year after year. I was the NAIA-SIDA Past President and served on more committees at Columbia and in the NAIA than I care to remember. My goal was to serve the CoSIDA membership in the highest leadership role while also being a rockstar at all these things listed above…wife and mom included.
And having this platform as a CoSIDA leader has changed my life.
A short three years later and things have transformed drastically for me (and everyone else) but at no point in the interview process back in 2018 or even back in my Athletic Directors’ office in 2006 did anyone make a promise that things would be better in the future. No one guaranteed I would receive money as president or a salary increase at Columbia. No one promised me gifts or assistants so less work was on my plate. I certainly wasn’t promised a larger office or more holidays. I was also never told I would experience loss, heartbreak, name calling, health issues, an executive director search, a new membership model, a rebrand, coaches and staff resigning, and all the struggles that go along with balancing work and life with two growing kids … and through a freaking pandemic!
No one promised me anything. And I truly believe that acceptance has gotten me to where I am today. In a place where I am entitled to nothing but grateful for everything. In a place where life is hard every day but every day is worth fighting for. In a place where those that support and love me don’t need to hear the appreciation every day because they already know it. And in a place where others’ expectations of me don’t hold a candle to the expectations I have put on myself.
I hope to have impacted this profession positively during my time and made everyone think a little more before speaking. I hope you can revisit when you were hired and what were your reasons for joining the profession. Have those reasons changed? Were your expectations not met and now this isn’t the profession for you? If you are unhappy, what makes you stay and can you turn that into job satisfaction? What is your “why?”
My why: her name is Caitlynn Jae Potter (CJ) and she wasn’t a thought in my mind when I joined the profession. (And for the record, neither was my son.) So, my initial “why” has changed for the better.
I hope to have shown her that entitlement gets you nowhere but hard work and gratefulness gets you everywhere. I hope she learns from amazing female role models like I did. I hope she recognizes that being a part of a student-athletes journey is a privilege and not a right. I hope I’ve shown her that the grass is usually not greener in the transfer portal, but she can make the grass green wherever she stands. And I hope one day she understands the significance that on the 50th anniversary of Title IX, her mom will hand the CoSIDA gavel to another mom for the first time ever.
Cheers, my friends!
Cindy
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