Geneva’s true ‘Home Field’

TOM HARRIS
Star Beacon

July 03, 2009 02:20 am

— Norm Potter was born into Geneva football. He grew up hearing about the Eagles’ football glories from his dad and his dad’s friends.
And in the early 1980s, Potter was a kicker for coach Bob Herpy.
“I heard a lot about all the guys,” Potter said. “My dad was a big softball guy, and Donny Craine was on his team. They told me all the stories.”
For the past five years, Potter has been closer than ever to those memories, searching yearbooks and watching films. The result is a video history of Geneva football, titled “Home Field,” which is available at the Winner’s Circle in Geneva.
“It started about five years ago,” Potter said. “I started going through some old yearbooks and some pictures and got interested in the history of Geneva football.”
Potter and the project were well suited for each other.
“My dad was a real Geneva history buff, and I taught history until we moved to Utah in March,” Potter said.
Potter also had film to watch, lots of film. The material he had to work with included 108 Geneva game films from the years 1946 through 1981.
“That took some time,” Potter said. “It was the old reel-to-reel film, it wasn’t VHS tape. We had to convert it to disc, and that took a while.”
It was worth the work, however. The stories Potter heard as a boy came to life on film.
“I loved watching the films,” he said. “I went to some of those games, but it was a lot different than I remembered it. I was able to watch people like Jim Merrell, Dale Arkenburg and Coach Herpy when he played. Watching Mark Debevc was amazing.”
The highlight of the highlights for Potter was a nifty run by Ed Pizzuto.
“I think it was against Madison,” Potter said. “And he went around right end, broke a couple tackles and ended up going 60 or 65 yards for a touchdown. It was a thrill to just to be able to watch it.”
Potter got help amassing material for his video from current Geneva football coach Tony Hassett, Gary Novak, Ken Ankrom and others. Collecting the materials was just one of the problems Potter faced.
“It took five years to put together,” he said. “We got started, but after a year or so we ran into some snags with copyrights. We didn’t want to have any trouble. We kept going, but we had to make sure there weren’t going to be any problems. We wanted to do it right.”
Money earned from the project will benefit Geneva sports programs. Potter thinks most of the money will go to the football, but the decisions on how the money is to be allotted will be made in Geneva.
“When this started, all the money was to go to the football field,” Potter said. “But they got that taken care of in one fell swoop (with the GaREAT Complex).”
Potter graduated from Geneva in 1982 and went on to Adrian College, where he played football. Until this spring, Potter lived in Michigan, teaching and coaching. In 1998, he was named the county volleyball Coach of the
Year, guiding Bliffield High School to a 34-8-1 record, the first time the team had finished above .500 since 1973.
In March, Potter, his wife, Michelle, son, Peyton,11, and daughter, Paige, 9, moved to Harriman, Utah. Potter is working as an educational consultant and running a small video business on the side.
“It’s beautiful out here,” he said. “We’re still getting used to it. But we’re about 25 minutes from Salt Lake City, there are three national parks in easy driving distance, the Olympics facilities from 2002 are close by and the mountains are just breathtaking.”
Harris is a freelance writer from Ashtabula Township.

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