By Derrick Smith

Coaches play a huge role in the lives of their athletes. They are around them most days during the season and in the offseason. Like the athletes, coaches strive and put in the work to be successful at their craft. Baron Potter says that when things do not go as planned, it gives you the opportunity to grow.

“One of the things that I have learned most from being a coach is learning from mistakes,” he said. “We do not always make the right decisions, and that is okay as long as you learn from it, just as we ask our athletes to do. Another key is having great coachable kids.”

Potter is the head coach of the boy’s golf team at Edmond North High School. He also serves as defensive coordinator for the football team. Baron and his wife Megan have been married for five years.

Potter says that there were coaches throughout his playing career that made impacts on him and helped shape him into the coach he is today. 

“I had some amazing high school and college coaches,” he said. “They showed me you could demand a lot but still show that they really cared for you. When I was done playing I wanted to have the opportunity to have that same impact on kids.”

While these coaches impacted Baron’s life, he says that there is one man that he has looked up to for as long as he can remember. 

“My dad has always been my biggest role model,” he said. “He has modeled what it means to be a hard-working and godly man.”

He loves sports and that is part of the reason he enjoys coaching. But he says that there is another reason why he loves it so much. “I love the competition and being around the sport,” he said. “But most of all I enjoy the relationships I am able to build with my athletes. Nothing makes me prouder than to see guys I have coached doing great things in life.”

Potter has made a lot of great memories throughout his career, but he says that being a part of the 2012 baseball state championship team and a golf state championship in 2018 rank near the top of the list.