Dan Potokar update
With cancer gone, life's good
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
By Ken Gordon
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Neal C. Lauron | DISPATCH
Former Ohio State walk-on Dan Potokar found time to work with the Buckeyes as a student assistant coach during spring practice.
Photo for The Dispatch
Dan Potokar is engaged to his high school sweetheart, Stephanie Wills.
Regardless of the weather, Dan Potokar's life has become a daily succession of cloudless blue skies.
After wandering through a dark, 16-month maze of treatments for testicular cancer, the former Ohio State receiver appears to have turned the last corner and broken into the clear.
In February, an MRI revealed that all five tumors that dotted Potokar's brain last August had disappeared. His most recent blood work to count his "tumor markers" came back at two. Anything fewer than five is considered clear. Potokar's count once was a quarter of a million.
"We'll take two," said his mother, Nannette Kinman, with a laugh.
So this spring, a young man's thoughts can turn back to life. Potokar is taking a full load of classes and worked with the Buckeyes in their just-completed spring drills as a student assistant coach.
For good measure, the Grove City native is engaged to his high school sweetheart, Stephanie Wills.
"I'm doing great," Potokar said. "I feel wonderful. I'm working out consistently. It's exciting."