In 2022, Zack Potts was coming off the most difficult season of his career.

He couldn't get outs. He was throwing too hard. To rekindle his old form, he spent time not in a weight room or pitching lab, but 8,000 miles away in the wilderness of India.

The soul-searching journey was the start of his circuitous route to William & Mary, one that included a Division III national championship and All-American season. Of the 307 opening-day starters in college baseball this season, few have taken a road less traveled than the Tribe's ace.

Raised on the Farm
Potts grew up in the idyllic countryside of Goochland County, Va. The nearest community is Oilville, a glorified post office off Interstate 64. His home was a five-acre plot of land replete with horses, chickens and a small barn.

"The first memory I have playing baseball was in my field," Potts said. "One of the fields has a perfect 90-degree turn. We would mow out in the grass a little baseball diamond and just play wiffle ball. Sometimes you'd use metal bats and kids would get smacked in the face. It was always really fun."

Potts was homeschooled, so baseball provided an avenue to hang out with other kids in his neighborhood. His Little League team from Goochland featured just nine players, barely enough for a full squad.

By seventh grade, he was playing on travel ball teams and having thoughts about competing in college. Although the prospect of getting recruited was foreign to an 11-year-old, he knew he needed to attend public school to play against better competition.

"Some guys wanted to get drafted and they were the best. Some guys wanted to get drafted and they weren't. I had to understand where to place myself in a realistic [mindset]."

He transitioned into Goochland High School where he was primarily a catcher on the varsity team. Potts could throw "hard-ish," as he says, but possessed only a fastball and one off-speed pitch. On account of the stress fracture in his elbow he suffered as a senior, the majority of his offers were from Division III schools in the ODAC.

Nearly all wanted him to catch.

"The Division I schools didn't want to deal with me. I didn't have the power for a catcher and I didn't throw hard enough off the bump."

There was one exception: the University of Lynchburg. Potts had connections to their coaching staff through his travel ball coaches. He tried to wrangle assurances from other staffs that he would get innings on the mound, but Lynchburg was the only place that recruited him solely as a pitcher.

"Division III was really the place for me. I was absolutely fine with that throughout high school because it was more about where I wanted to play rather than where I wanted to go sit on the bench."



Adapting to College Life
Potts' transition to college ball wasn't easy, though. A freshman in 2020, he hadn't thrown the previous spring and was limited to light rehab while being thrust onto a new campus.

"In Division III, in the fall, you only get 16 practice days. What that means is the players themselves have to lead practice. I had to buy into what [the older players] were telling me, as well as bounce back from this injury that I had."

"At this point, it's like, 'This is the only place that recruited me to be a pitcher, and now my arm is hurting.'"

He had no choice but to get over it quickly. After a solid fall, Potts made four appearances as a rookie, overcoming a rough debut and posting three straight scoreless outings. He was the winning pitcher in Lynchburg's final game before the COVID-19 shutdown.

Potts had worked out what he called his "internal imposter syndrome": the lingering doubt in his own abilities despite evidence to the contrary.

"It was absolutely tough," he said of the season's abrupt end. "Like, I finally got to that place of belonging and was one of the young dudes on the team. Then on the bus ride back everything got shut down."

During the quarantine, Potts went outdoors and explored the neighboring woods. He threw baseballs into a net on his horse pasture, using his barn door as a backstop.

Like a scene from Field of Dreams?

"With horses instead of corn."

Settling In
The solemnity of the pandemic allowed Potts to readjust mentally. The following preseason, he worked with Lynchburg pitching coach Travis Beazley on controlling his mentality, knowing full well the type of pitcher he needed to be.

The result: a 2.53 ERA with seven wins, no losses and an impeccable 70-9 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

"Every time I pitched at Lynchburg, the goal was to finish the game. I thought that was a good mindset to have — I'm not giving up the baseball."

Unfortunately, the success was fleeting. As a junior, Potts regressed to a 5.77 ERA with an opponents' batting average north of .300.

"The second year is the hardest for any pitcher. Usually the first year is going to be good because no one has ever seen you. Now everyone has a scouting report. It's where you show, 'Are you good, or were you just unexpected?'"

He admitted to throwing harder, wilting under the pressure of trying to be the perfect pitcher.

"I accidentally put a lot of the pressure of the staff on me despite us having a plethora of other talented pitchers. I think that really took away from being in the moment, and all the things that allowed me to keep my cool from my other outings."



Finding Himself
Potts left for India that December. What would normally be considered a "coach's nightmare" was also necessary to acquire his degree as part of a month-long study abroad program. Here was the ace of the staff on the other side of the world four weeks prior to the start of his senior year.

"All I was really doing was going to yoga and going to temples and hiking in the wilderness — the cliche of finding myself in India. That [helped] having an elite mentality and perspective moving into the season."

He returned a new person. Potts posted a career-best 2.16 ERA in 2023, going undefeated in 13 decisions. He surrendered one home run the entire season and was named an ABCA All-American.

He also helped guide the Hornets to the Division III College World Series, where they captured the national championship for the first time in program history.

"We didn't even think of it like a World Series. We thought of it like a regional and a super regional. We were in control of the framing of what the game was. This could be the Super Bowl or it could be a scrimmage."

"We decided very often it was the Super Bowl."

New Beginnings
Potts decided to move on from Lynchburg as the season came to a close. Head coach Lucas Jones was entirely supportive, telling his protege that he "recruited [him] to be here for four years."

Due to the differing timetable at the Division III level, Potts was making this decision before the playoffs even started. He got in contact with the previous coaching staff at William & Mary and took a liking to the school's public policy program.

Academics were a priority for Potts, and combined with the talent on the Tribe roster, the decision was a "no-brainer."

"I knew where I was going and had everything figured out… That allowed me to take a deep breath and not put pressure on myself going into the postseason."

Baseball is unique in that the translatability of skill sets between the highest and lowest levels is less pronounced than other sports. Potts is a testament to that. In his first year with the Tribe in 2024, he had a 3.84 ERA and ranked among the nation's leaders in strikeout-to-walk ratio.

If you ask him, there was never a doubt he could perform against the best.

"I was going five innings [in the Coastal Plains League], giving up a couple runs, on 50-60 pitches. I would have people telling me, 'Dude, you're not Division III.' I am — it's just the gap's not that big."

Much of Potts' pitching philosophy comes from Guy Hansen, a former pitching coach in the Kansas City Royals organization. Hansen lived near Potts' hometown and was active in Little League baseball. From the age of 10, Potts learned from Hansen the "art" or "craft" of pitching, picking up on small details like pitch sequencing.

At Lynchburg, Potts worked with Beazley on manipulating ball placement, which was necessary as someone who has never relied on throwing hard. (Potts' favorite pitch is Hall of Famer Greg Maddux's two-seam fastball.)

Whereas virtually all Division I batteries have their pitches called for them, Potts got experience calling his own pitches with his catcher thanks to intrasquad scrimmages that were largely player-run.

At small schools, the requirement to think for yourself leads to a more cerebral understanding of the game.

"I knew more about my career than a lot of the Division I guys. They had been told what to do sometimes, and didn't have a sense of deciding what's the right thing for them to do. Everyone is getting the pitches called for them and no one is explaining it."



Culture First
Potts' venture to India was the fulcrum on which his mentality shifted. Like many athletes, he had to wrestle with his identity, realizing that his life was more than just baseball.

That mindset blended perfectly with first-year William & Mary head coach Rob McCoy, who has emphasized the importance of playing free and being your own person.

For McCoy, to be a good team first requires creating good teammates. Potts believes that is his head coach's greatest strength.

"Culturally, what we've emphasized is that trust. Every day we go over different mental exercises and share those with each other. We're constantly sharing information that's pertinent to baseball. Everyone has something to contribute that is meaningful. Everyone is curious.

"This team has become extremely close, extremely vulnerable and trusting each other."

Among the major lessons: don't be afraid to fail. That applies to Potts as much as anyone.

"In baseball, there's a ton of failure everywhere you go. The most mature way is you can look at failure as a learning opportunity."

In an era where the structure of college athletics is rapidly changing, the image of the "student-athlete" often entails a pejorative connotation. But Potts represents the student-athlete experience in its grandest form — one where academics takes the front seat and sports is only part of the journey.

He hopes to work in nonprofit management and use his baseball skills to teach. He's also toyed with the idea of returning to school to get a law degree. The balance between academics and athletics gives him perspective, reminding him where his priorities lie.

"I'm not 'Zack Potts the baseball player.' I'm Zack Potts who plays baseball."

He just happens to be good at it.