Sure, sophomore Zach Potter went to lots of Nebraska football games growing up, but he really wasn’t the stereotypical, crazed Husker fan growing up in Omaha.

Actually, his dad, Dave Potter, said Zach really never thought too much of football growing up because it always took a back seat to basketball.

“He was more of a basketball fan growing up,” Dave said. “He really liked the fab five of Michigan with the long shorts. He always liked Kansas, North Carolina and other basketball schools. He really wasn’t too die-hard of a Nebraska fan because basketball was his first love.”

But in high school, Potter became a standout in football as well and put aside his dreams of wearing high, black socks at Michigan for a chance to play in Memorial Stadium.

The shift to football came the summer before his junior year at Omaha Creighton Prep.  Before that summer, Potter still focused primarily on basketball, where he started at Prep since he was a freshman.

Plus, every summer, Zach would play on AAU teams and was a teammate of former Bellevue West standout Josh Dotzler.

But over his first two years at Prep, Zach put about 30 pounds on his 6-foot-7 frame and became a force in football fast.

So fast that after he attended the Husker football camp in 2003, Frank Solich offered him a scholarship.

Once Nebraska came calling, Notre Dame, Iowa,and Kansas State tried to land Potter, who was rated the sixth-best strongside defensive end recruit in the nation and the best overall prospect in Nebraska.

After the top-tier football programs expressed interest, Dave said it was an easy decision for Zach to plan on playing football collegiately.

“Early on there was a lot of interest from basketball programs,” Dave said. “Once he got the football offers, it’s hard to compete with a football offer from Nebraska. By the time he was a senior, he was already up to 250 pounds and stayed at 6-7. If you aren’t jumping out of the gym at that height you have to shoot like Kyle Korver to get at the top level of basketball like Nebraska is at the top level of football.”

Now, instead of spending his summers traveling around the country and playing on the hardwood, Potter focuses year-round at becoming a force for the Blackshirts.

Dave said Zach owes a lot of his success to being a basketball nut before he became a Husker.

Reach Tommy Dahlk at 473-7431 or at tdahlk@journalstar.com.