Last season was historic for the Fortier-led Zags, who went undefeated in regular-season West Coast Conference play and defeated UC Irvine and Utah in the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament on their home court before falling to No. 1 seed Texas in the third round.
Fortier learned of her diagnosis with seven games remaining in the regular season. She said that when Gonzaga’s season ended, she turned her focus to her health, which was an eye-opening experience that she says changed her perspective on life forever.
“When someone tells you that you have stage two/three breast cancer that’s spread to your lymph nodes, it’s startling,” Fortier said. “It doesn’t take very long, once you get over the shock, it doesn’t take you very long to realize just the beautiful life that we get to live, and we only get one of them, and you don’t have control over all parts of it. And so it’s very important to love your people well and to not let life pass you by.”
After leading the Zags to their best season in program history, Fortier was named the 2024 Kathy Delaney-Smith Coach of the Year, awarded to the most outstanding mid-major head coach in the country. She was also named the West Coast Conference coach of the year.
As soon as our season was over, we kind of went into full go mode on how to take care of me,” Fortier said. “We had a successful surgery in April. We’ve gone through a lot of treatment over the summer… So I spent a lot of time working from home, coming in to see the players whenever I could. I have a great staff of coaches who are really experienced and care deeply about our program, and so they kind of took up all the slack for when I needed to focus a little bit more on my health.”
As Fortier continues her battle with breast cancer, she says she is looking forward to the season and is thankful for the support of her fans, family, team and Gonzaga.
“Now, we’re moving into the next phase, plugging along at all the treatment,” Fortier said. “I’m obviously feeling good. I look a little different. But very excited for the season to come… I’m doing great, as you can see, and feeling really well-loved by our team, and my family, and Gonzaga University as a whole, and really the community and everybody. I feel very fortunate to be a part of this group as I continue on with this battle. Hopefully soon I can put this behind me and just work toward what’s next.”
Fortier has been at the helm of Gonzaga since the 2014–15 season, where she has led the Zags to a 265–63 overall record with an 80.8% winning percentage, the highest in Gonzaga women’s basketball history.
Year 11 for Fortier may feel different, but the excitement for Gonzaga basketball is as high as ever.
“We’re really excited for our season to come, and we just wanted to share that bit with you,” Fortier said.
Leave a Reply