Buffkin Baker/College Sports Solutions place new women’s head coach at Georgia Tech.
The partnership of Buffkin Baker/College Sports Solutions placed the new women’s basketball coach at Georgia Tech.
Nell Fortner has been named the sixth head coach in Georgia Tech women’s basketball history, director of athletics Todd Stansbury announced on Tuesday.
One of the most successful coaches in women’s basketball history, Fortner has compiled a 305-187 (.620) record as a head coach at the collegiate, professional and international levels. She has led teams to Big Ten (Purdue – 1997) and Southeastern Conference (Auburn – 2009) championships and, perhaps most notably, coached the United States national team to three international titles from 1997-2000, including the gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
“I’m excited to welcome Coach Fortner to the Georgia Tech family,” Stansbury said. “Her resume speaks for itself – she is one of the most successful and respected coaches in women’s basketball history. She’s not only led teams to Olympic gold and major conference championships, but she has also proven to be an outstanding leader of young women who has embodied our mission of developing the young people who will change the world.”
Fortner is the winningest coach in the history of the USA women’s basketball national team, having compiled a 101-14 (.878) record. In addition to the 2000 Olympics championship, she also led the team to the gold medal at the 1998 World Championship in Berlin, Germany and the 1998 William Jones Cup in Taipei, Taiwan.
At the collegiate level, Fortner has nine seasons of experience as a head coach – one at Purdue (1996-97) and eight at Auburn (2004-12) – and has compiled a 162-117 (.581) overall record in the college ranks.
In her first season as a collegiate head coach, she led Purdue to a share of the Big Ten regular-season championship with a 12-4 conference record and an NCAA Tournament berth. Following the impressive rookie campaign, she was named the 1997 Basketball Times National Coach of the Year.
She left Purdue after one season to take over as the full-time head coach of the U.S. national team but returned to the collegiate ranks in 2004 at Auburn. With Fortner at the helm, Auburn won at least 20 games three times, highlighted by a 30-4 campaign in 2008-09 that saw the Tigers win the SEC regular-season title for the first time in 20 years and saw Fortner named the SEC and WBCA Region III Coach of the Year.
In addition to her stints as head coach with Purdue, the U.S. national team and Auburn, Fortner served as the first head coach and general manager in the history of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever from 2000-03. She didn’t coach the Fever in 2000 due to the Summer Olympics, but took over coaching duties in ’01 and led the franchise to its first playoffs appearance in ’02.
Jeff Schemmel, CSS and Dan Walters, Buffkin Baker handled the search.