The AGC Needs You!

SEEKING NOMINATIONS

The Alumni Governing Council (AGC) Nominations Committee is seeking candidates to serve as council members for the upcoming term. The mission of the Alumni Association is to foster a sense of community among Potomac School alumni and to cultivate relationships with other members of the community, including current students, current and past teachers and administrators, and current and past parents.

We welcome the recommendations of the Potomac community as we seek to fill these important leadership positions. Please contact Laura Miller, director of alumni relations, if you are interested or would like to recommend a fellow alum. 

New Hires in the Athletics Department 

This year, Potomac’s Athletics Department has benefited from the talents and experience of two new assistant athletics directors: Asha Franklin and Mark St. Germain. Asha has more than a decade of college basketball coaching experience at the Division I, II, and III levels and previously served as director of women’s basketball operations at Pepperdine University. She has worked as a private consultant, recruiter, and scout and serves as a trainer with the Positive Coaching Alliance. Mark also brings extensive experience, having worked in independent school athletics for more than 25 years. He served as an assistant athletics director at St. Albans, Flint Hill, and St. Stephens & St. Agnes and helped to open John Paul the Great as that school's first athletics director. Most recently, Mark was a PE teacher, boys varsity lacrosse coach, and tenth grade dean at Maret. We sat down with Mark and Asha to explore their experiences as first-year Panthers and learn about the ways they are contributing to Potomac’s program.

Mark’s responsibilities include inspecting Potomac’s fields and courts on a daily basis to ensure their safety and coordinating transportation for athletes and coaches traveling to away games. One of his current projects is getting the batting cages up and running for the spring season. Meanwhile, Asha provides a wide array of support functions for the department, including working with Potomac’s Communications Office to coordinate sports information to be shared on social media and in the school’s weekly parent newsletter, Paw Prints. You can follow Potomac athletics on Instagram @potomacsports.

Both Mark and Asha also work directly with our student-athletes. Last fall, Mark coached the Intermediate School football team, and he will coach IS boys’ lacrosse this spring. Noting how much he enjoys helping young athletes achieve their potential, Mark says, “I want to be that guy who alumni remember as willing to put in the time to talk, and work personally with students.” Asha runs the department’s Managers Program, where she educates team managers on the sports they assist with and helps them understand how to interact with officials, opposing teams, and their coaches. Asha has also served as a special assistant for Potomac’s boys varsity basketball team, putting the players through some of the intense drills that she learned as a college coach. Due to the behind-the-scenes nature of many of her responsibilities, Asha didn’t think students would come to view her as a mentor, but the close-knit nature of the Potomac community has proved her expectation wrong. She says, “I’ve discovered that my job gives me the chance to get to know the kids as people first. There’s no pressure on them to impress me on the court or in a classroom, so the walls aren’t as high; this has given me valuable insights on how they view Potomac and their experience here.”

Both Asha and Mark are caring leaders that students can look to for guidance, support, and encouragement. Please join us in welcoming them to Potomac Athletics.