The perfect combination of time and place brought Greg Fortner back into the prep basketball coaching scene.
The former head coach for the Fox girls in the early-to-mid 2000s and an assistant with Northwest, Fortner recently had had taken a few seasons off from hoops.
While still a member of the Lions coaching fraternity with the football and baseball programs, Fortner said he chose to leave some time open so he could watch his oldest daughters, Kayla and Brittany, play college softball.
“But now that they’re done playing softball, I really don’t have any conflicts in the winter anymore,” Fortner said. “And I’ve always enjoyed coaching basketball, so it felt like the right time to get back into it.”
As for the right place, well, Fortner may still teach at Fox, but there’s definitely a family legacy at Northwest that’s hard to deny.
“I went to Northwest, graduated from there, I taught there for 10 years before I moved over to Fox,” Fortner said. “But I live right there by the school; my kids have all gone here. It’s always been like a home to me.”
Besides, Fortner already has a bit of history with several members of the Lions basketball team, especially a junior guard named Megan, the coach’s daughter.
“I’ve helped coached a lot of these girls with their little league team for probably the last six or seven years, so I’ve seen them when they were coming up, followed them in high school,” Fortner said. “Even though I haven’t coached in high school for a while, I’ve been around it, with my daughters playing in the program. I’ve enjoyed watching these kids play, and I look forward to hopefully getting Northwest basketball back up to where it should be – being successful again.”
Fortner has a difficult task ahead, as Northwest went 3-22 last season. The Lions haven’t posted a winning record since Kayla and Brittany Fortner helped lead them to a 13-11 mark in the 2010-11 season, but Fortner said he likes what he saw during the team’s first week of preseason workouts.
“The kids are working hard,” he said. “It’s a slow process right now, because we’re basically putting in a lot of new stuff offensively, defensively and new terminology. Everything’s a little different for them, learning my expectations and how I want to do things, how I want to run practice, but it’s been good. We’ve definitely got a long ways to go, and it’s going to take a while, but they’re working hard.”
Megan Fortner, a 5-foot-7 guard, returns for her third varsity season after leading the Lions last year in points (10.6 per game), assists (1.8) and steals (4.04), the latter mark ranking second in the Suburban West Conference.
“Megan’s a good scorer, but she’s really a great leader for us,” Fortner said. “She works hard all the time, she plays hard, and she’s probably our best defender. She’s just an overall good player, and she’ll do a little bit of everything for us.”
Senior guard Abby Bowen (5-6) was the second-leading scorer at 7.9 points last year, and she was the team’s top 3-point shooter, hitting 34.6 percent (28-of-81) of her shots.
“She’s probably the best outside shooter that we have on the team, so she’ll fill a role there for us,” Fortner said.
Senior guard Anne Lakin (5-7) will give the Lions a solid effort at both ends of the court.
“Great kid, works hard all the time,” Fortner said. “She’s one who is going to go out there and do whatever you ask her to do.”
Other guards include juniors Jordan Owens (5-4) and Michelle Bird (5-7), and sophomore Maddie Welker (5-5).
Northwest returns very little varsity experience in the frontcourt. Senior Kelly Nall (5-11) and juniors Amanda Long (5-9) and Hannah Krebbs (5-11) combined to play in 18 varsity games last year, generating a total of 18 points and 24 rebounds. Fortner said Nall could surprise some people with her play at center, and he expects Long and Krebbs to help particularly with rebounding.
“All of our big girls are going to have to be a lot more physical inside than what they are now,” Fortner said.
Sophomore Abby Wright, a 5-10 forward, has shown some potential, and Fortner said Wright could develop into a nice post player.
“Kind of like our other big players, she needs to get a little more physical, but Abby can get away from the basket and hit some shots out there, make post players come out and guard her,” Fortner said. “Hopefully we can keep working on that.”
Fortner said he’s confident Northwest will be tough defensively. A big key for the team’s success will be the ability to turn its defensive play into offensive opportunities.
“We’re going to play real aggressive on defense, probably press and trap a lot, try to create turnovers and hopefully score in transition a little more than maybe we’ve done in the past,” Fortner said. “We’re not going to be very big, but I think we’re going to be pretty athletic, so we’ll try to play at a faster pace sometimes and use that to our advantage.”
Northwest is scheduled to open the season at home on Nov. 17 against Rockwood Summit.
Jaguars hope late momentum carries though this year
With the second-half resurgence the Jaguars put on last season, Seckman head coach Brian Metteer is champing at the bit for this one to start.
The Jaguars will do just that later this month, when Fox comes calling.
After they won just two of their first 10 games last year, the Jaguars went 9-7 on the backside, finishing 11-15.
That run, plus a talented group of seniors in Sam Stuckmeyer, Maranda Kriese, Lauren Stamm and Morgan Fowler has Metteer speaking in glowing terms about his team.
“So obviously, when last year came, we knew we were very inexperienced,” Metteer said. “We had four freshmen playing up, but we thought by midseason, we could be competitive. Even games we lost against the better teams in our conference, we were competing into the fourth quarter. So we saw what we were capable of, if we could keep everybody together.
“My seniors are hungry, and the sophomores are fighting like crazy for their spots. Sam is an absolute gym rat, who is constantly on a court somewhere, and she’s been like that since her freshman year. She’s at a point where her shot is so natural and her athleticism allows her to be a finisher, too, and she recognizes that.
“Maranda’s back as our starting center, and is in the best shape she can be in. She realized her footwork needs to be better so she can stay out of foul trouble because we played way too many parts of games with her on the bench.
“Lauren picked it up halfway through last season, and does a lot of things for us. She distributes the ball well, is a source of control on the floor and doesn’t crack under pressure.
“Makayla Parton averaged eight points a game as a freshman, and she’s so athletic and long that she becomes a match-up problem. She makes it hard for opponents to see the basket.”
Metteer said there’s an interesting battle going on in preseason practice.
“Emma Harris is my returning point guard, and we put her in a position where she probably wasn’t fully ready as a freshman,” he said. “But by the end of the year she was legitimate, and now she’s fighting for the position with Brianna Mercer. You see them push each other in practice, and it’s good for both of them.
“When you throw a girl like Carley Critchlow into the mix, we’ve got four girls who are either 5-10 or 5-11, and they all bring something. Abby Townsend is a utilitarian player who’s not tall, but strong and fast. She fits a much-needed role, and has really embraced that.”
Metteer was noncommittal about when, or even perhaps if, freshman Taylor Beaven will make her varsity debut. Beaven missed all of the volleyball season with a stress fracture in her back and, as of last week, the doctors had yet to clear her for basketball.
“We have her on the roster,” Metteer said, “and she knows she’s got work to do when she gets back. She’s going to define her own role; it’s a matter of getting back into shape to play.”
Metteer is hoping that late-season success last year is ready to carry over.
“Sure, we’re more confident,” he said. “But our expectations are higher, so naturally that also sets us up for letdowns. If we stay true to that level of confidence, we’ll have success, and we should win more games and make somebody pay attention to us.”
Warriors looking to build on recent success
Looking for a job after Kennedy High School shut its doors, basketball coach Matt Weber thought the Fox girls job was too good to pass up.
Weber’s opinion was based on what previous coach Scott Cleer was able to get out of the Warriors. In the last three seasons, Cleer led them to a record of 48-32, a 20-win season for the first time in more than two decades in 2015-2016 and a district championship.
However, Weber soon figured out that most of the girls who accomplished those feats are gone.
“I knew coming in what we would be losing,” Weber said. “Not only the best player in the school’s history (Izzy Farrell), but maybe the best player in the (school) district’s history. But the girls we have here are working hard, even though we do have a lot of holes to fill. On the other hand, it’s exciting because there will be a lot of points to be scored by players with different faces and names.”
Even with all the departures from last season, Fox will have some experience. Seniors Kaitlyn Drysdale and Paige Pisoni and junior Lauren Duff played significant time during that three-year run.
Weber let it be known that he is counting heavily on them.
“Leadership,” he said about his experienced returners, “that, and how to practice at the varsity level and play in games. Those three absolutely know how to do those things, and that’s what makes them so valuable to get the rest of the girls through the long season. The best thing about returning players is that, in most cases, they star in other sports.”
Weber mentioned four other players that he expects to see acquire a good chunk of playing time this season, which begins at Seckman later this month. That group includes Sydney Adamec, Abbey Gierer and Mattie Chrum, all juniors, and freshman Minea Dervisevic.
“Those four will definitely have minutes up for grabs,” Weber said. “Minea, in particular, does everything, and is just a basketball player, to put it in that sense. She accepts direction and learns from it. There’s experience on the JV level with the juniors in that group, and they’ve been through the grind, so to speak. They will definitely fight with each other for minutes.”
Weber knows better than to set expectations with a youthful group, but he said he wouldn’t term this year as a rebuilding job.
“Our big focus is just to get better every day,” he said. “We want to be the grittiest team on the floor every night, and that’s how we hope it’s going to be.”
Wins and losses aren’t as important as progress, the coach said.
“When the games come, the games come,” he said. “Most of these girls haven’t played together before, so coming together as a team is the big thing. But they’re a very unselfish group, and want each other to do well.”