Former women’s basketball olympic head coach, Nell Fortner, inspired Bolles students with her passion for coaching and edge for speaking at the last convocation on March 1st.

Nell Fortner, now age 56, was born in Jackson, Mississippi where her love for basketball was sparked at an early age. Fortner went on to play college basketball for the Texas Longhorns. For Fortner, college was the time when she recognized her passion for coaching and sharing her love for the game. “Moving to Texas was the pivotal moment in my career” said Fortner during Tuesday’s convocation.

During a national team practice, Fortner watched as the girls half-heartedly completed their drills. She called everyone into mid-court and said, “if you’re going to be in a place, be all there.” She explained that wherever you are, whether it is in English class or the olympic games, put everything you have into that one moment.

As an assistant coach, Fortner had aspirations to one day become an olympic coach. After sharing her dreams with her boss, “she choked on her bacon and told me there was no way I could ever do that” said Fortner. “But I believed I could do it.”

And believed she did when eight years later she was coaching the 2000 women’s national team at the olympic games in Sydney for a gold medal against Russia. According to Fortner, belief is the most powerful tool on the road to achievement. “Believe in yourself was the first thing I hung up on the locker room wall at my first job as a high school coach,” said Fortner.

“I didn’t just lie in bed and wait for success to fall on me” said Fortner. “Rather I worked the grind and let it shine”. Fortner explained how no one can “cheat the grind”. According to Fortner, the grind is the pivotal factor on the road toward success.

“Before facing Russia in the olympics, I had to decide what gave us an edge,” said Fortner. Edge, or Enthusiasm, Discipline, Grit, and the Expectation of greatness all gave Fortner and her team the edge over the Russians to win the gold.

According to Fortner, success does not come naturally, and you do not have to be a genius to be successful. “Attitude and kindness are everything” explained Fortner, “With a good attitude and a kind mentality towards others, you can go anywhere in life.”

Following Fortner’s speech, a number of students were truly inspired, all the way into third period. “The next morning I did not snooze my alarm clock. I got up and told myself I wasn’t going to cheat the grind anymore…until the next day when I snoozed my alarm” said Skyler Mitchell ‘18. No doubt Fortner had a huge impact on Bolles students for the next twenty-four hours. However, did Fortner truly succeed in making a long-term impact on Bolles?