Senior Spotlight: Elle Pottorf
April 29, 2009
LAWRENCE, Kan. –
As if five years of undergrad wasn’t enough, Elle Pottorf still has three more years of school to get where she wants to go. Already dubbed with the nickname ‘grandma’ by several of her teammates, Pottorf has a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and has aspirations of becoming a physical therapist, which requires three more years of schooling. Becoming a PT will allow her to accomplish her goal of becoming an athletic trainer one day.
“My dream job would be an athletic trainer for the Atlanta Braves,” says Pottorf. “I grew up watching the Braves so I’ve always liked them and have always followed the team.”
And as for her crush on Chipper Jones? Well that might have something to do with it, too.
It is no surprise that Pottorf’s post-college ambitions involve ball. Her entire life has revolved around the sport. She has been playing competitive softball for almost as long as she can remember and has spent a majority of her summers traveling around the country playing in tournaments.
“Our family vacations were my softball tournaments,” said Pottorf. “We never had time to go to the beach or anything like that.”
“Two of my favorite trips were Salem, Oregon and Colorado,” Pottorf added. “We went white-water rafting in Colorado and I fell out of the raft!”
Pottorf became interested in becoming an athletic trainer after suffering through her own injuries and was fascinated by the treatments she had to undergo.
Her most memorable injury occurred when she was a little girl, about nine or 10 years old. She was at her friend’s farm when the two of them decided to take off on some bikes.
“I was riding a 10-speed that was way too big for me,” remembers Pottorf. “Eventually we began going down a hill and I lost control, went off the trail and crashed right into a barbed wire fence.”
The fall resulted in 22 stitches down the whole one side of her body and a memory that has never been far from her mind.
Since then, Pottorf has also undergone shoulder surgery and knee surgery during college and both times members of the KU athletic training staff have rehabbed her back into KU softball’s starting lineup. Its situations like these that has Pottorf looking forward to her future as a PT when she will have the chance to help others continue playing something they love.
