A familiar name is taking the reins of the Northwest girls basketball program for the 2017-2018 season.
The Northwest R-1 Board of Education has approved the hiring of Greg Fortner to succeed Mary Hannig as the Lions’ head coach. Hannig served three years in the post, compiling a record of 20-59.
Fortner most recently served as an assistant football coach and head baseball coach for Northwest. He resigned from the baseball job at the conclusion of the Lions’ season this spring.
Fortner, 48, is one of many coaches in the area who teach at one school and coach at another. He has taught at Fox High for 16 years and was head coach of the Warriors’ girls basketball team from 2001 through 2006.
“I’ve always enjoyed coaching basketball,” Fortner said. “And I got out (of coaching) so I could watch my oldest daughters, Kayla and Brittany, play college softball. With them done playing, it seemed like it was the right time to get back into it.
“When I wasn’t doing high school baseball, I was working with the seventh and eighth grade girls with a guy named Dick Brand. So I’ve been around a lot of the kids that I’ll have on the varsity. I graduated from (Northwest), so I’ve been around the school basically my whole life. I want to see the (basketball) programs there get back to where they should be.”
Fortner said he had to step down from the baseball job for practical reasons.
“I’m giving up baseball because it’s hard to do with my being at Fox,” he said. “It was tough getting to practice, and with baseball you don’t have the luxury of going early or late. And I had to miss riding the bus to the games with the players. With basketball, I can schedule practice to start when I want it to, and that makes it a lot easier to work with.”
The Lions were 3-22 last season and haven’t broken even in the win-loss column since 2013-2014.
Returning the Lions to a competitive footing, Fortner said, is pretty much the same process a coach would follow at any high school.
“It starts with, really, just getting the kids out and keeping them out,” he said. “We’ve got around 160 in our (Fox) little league program, but it seems like when they get to high school, they’re not staying out.
“I’ve never seen it (Northwest basketball) as bad as it currently is. It reminds me of when I took over at Fox, and I know it’s not going to be fixed overnight.”
Fortner said he plans to teach for five more years and hopes he can help revive the Lion program in that time.
“This program can compete. Just by being around those kids, I think they should be a lot better than they were when I had them in the seventh and eighth grades.”
Fortner’s return means that his signature footwear will once again emerge from the closet. Fox fans certainly remember it – if not for the look, then for the noise he made stalking the sideline.
“Yeah, I am going to have to get my cowboy boots back out, to stomp them again,” he said with a chuckle. “They’re about the only dress shoes I have, you know.”