The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Women's Basketball Q&A with Nell Fortner
08.03.2016 | Women's Basketball
Texas Ex Nell Fortner was the head coach of Team USA at the 2000 Olympic Games.
Nell Fortner is a former two-sport letterwinner at the University of Texas, having competed in both basketball and volleyball. She played for the basketball Longhorns from 1977-81 and helped Texas to its first national ranking and a seventh-place showing in the AIAW Tournament.
Fortner, who currently serves as the analyst for Texas women's basketball broadcasts on Longhorn Network along with countless other responsibilities at ESPN, went on to a highly successful coaching career, including head coaching stops at Purdue and Auburn.
Fortner's decorated resume includes time with USA Basketball as an assistant coach for the 1996 U.S. Olympic Team and as head coach of the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team, both of which won gold medals. With the 2016 Olympic Games beginning later this week, Fortner sat down with TexasSports.com to reflect back on her experiences coaching Team USA.
TexasSports.com: How did you get involved with coaching Team USA?
Nell Fortner: "I was an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech from 1990-95 and then [Stanford head coach] Tara VanDerveer called and asked if I would be an assistant coach for a year with the National Team and help train them for the Olympics. I didn't know Tara at the time, but I knew her sister Heidi. Heidi had asked me at some point during the previous year if I would consider being an assistant with Tara. I said I definitely would. Tara called and asked me, and I accepted. We travelled the world preparing for the 1996 Olympics and that was how I got my start with USA Basketball."
TexasSports.com: You have said previously that it was your goal to be the coach of the Olympic team from an early age. What piqued your interest in coaching on the Olympic stage?
Nell Fortner: "When I think back about it, I probably first thought about it in high school and then it became a really strong desire of mine in college. I knew I wanted to be a coach and I had some great role models. I had a couple of really good high school coaches and then playing for Jody Conradt really took it to another level because I admired her so much. I have always been a very competitive person and have always wanted to do things at the highest level. You can't do anything higher than the Olympics."
TexasSports.com: Women's basketball wasn't a part of the Olympics until 1976. How rewarding was it for you to grow up alongside the rise of women's basketball, eventually being the head coach of the U.S. Olympic Team?
Nell Fortner: "Honestly, when I was growing up, I never even realized women weren't playing in the Olympics. When I was a kid, I grew up thinking everyone had equal opportunity and I didn't realize how behind women's athletics were at that time. Fortunately, I never really had to realize it. I was fortunate to play high school athletics when I moved to Texas and then at the University of Texas. I always felt like I could compete in anything or coach anything."
TexasSports.com: How did playing at Texas prepare you to later be the head coach of Team USA?
Nell Fortner: "Jody Conradt always prepared her players to handle themselves on and off the floor. She always handled herself with such class, dignity and humility. She was a tremendous role model in that regard and also a great motivator. I think that any athlete who played for Jody and went into coaching tried to pattern themselves after her. The confidence and class that she walked into the gym with every day and onto the game floor every night was phenomenal. She gave the team a lot of strength and confidence, and that is something that I always carried on with me. I always believed I would win as a coach and I always believed I would be the Olympic coach, and it was because of that confidence that Jody helped instill."
TexasSports.com: What did you find was the difference between coaching Team USA and coaching in college?
Nell Fortner: "Thinking back, when you're coaching the Olympic team, you're still coaching and running drills. You're managing players and getting them in shape. That part is fundamentally the same. With the Olympic team, it's more about managing all that talent and making sure everyone is on the same page as to what the end result is – that gold medal. Every one of those players is so highly competitive and the best in their sport. I was fortunate that on that 2000 team, they all put their egos aside and did what was best for the team. It made it a lot of fun to coach all of that talent and win the gold medal. In college, you don't have that depth of talent for the most part. You have great players, but you really have to develop your players on a daily basis."
TexasSports.com: Coaching, in general, is a stressful business, but how stressful was it to coach Team USA and knowing you're representing your country?
Nell Fortner: "Speaking for myself, it was the most amount of stress athletically that I've ever experienced in my life. It was unbelievable and probably took me years to recover from because the Olympics are such a huge event and the United States has the best basketball players on the planet. Anything less than a gold medal is unacceptable. That puts a whole lot of stress on the coaches. Fortunately, we had tremendous players. We had a long time to train and establish who we were and how we played."
TexasSports.com: When you coached Team USA, that was your full-time job. What was that experience like?
Nell Fortner: "It was awesome. That was a phenomenal experience. I coached other teams when I was the National Team coach – the Jones Cup Team, the Pan Am Team and the World Championship team. I got a lot of coaching experience through other teams outside of training the National Team. Traveling all over the world, seeing so many places and meeting so many wonderful people was absolutely phenomenal."
TexasSports.com: You talked about the stressful part of the job, but how rewarding was it when your 2000 team won the gold medal?
Nell Fortner: "After the buzzer went off and we won the gold medal, I have never felt that kind of relief probably in all of my life with the stress attached to it. I was a young head coach at that point. I had been at Purdue one year before I took over the National Team job. I didn't have a lot of experience on how to handle things. The stress just multiplied during those three years and when that game was over, the feeling was phenomenal. The celebration at the hotel was so much fun and we flew home with the men's team after they won the gold medal. It was a big 747 full of only the men's and women's basketball teams."
TexasSports.com: At the 2012 NCAA Final Four in Denver, all of the U.S. Olympic Team coaches were honored, which included Pat Summitt, Billie Moore, Van Chancellor and Geno Auriemma. What was it like for you to be among that group?
Nell Fortner: "I couldn't even believe it. I had to literally pinch myself. Am I really standing here with these phenomenal people? They were coaches I had admired my entire playing and coaching career. I was incredibly honored to be in the presence of all of them."
TexasSports.com: As the coach of the 2000 U.S. Olympic Team, what will it be like for you to watch the 2016 Games?
Nell Fortner: "Every time I watch, I watch with great anticipation, but the confidence that we're going to win every game we play. We have the best players on the planet. I really think the 2016 team is one of the best teams that has ever played in the Olympics. I think the 2000 team that I coached was the best team – phenomenal players with great experience. I think this 2016 team is right up there with them. You have players going for their fourth gold medals. You can't beat that kind of experience."
