Gonzaga basketball coach Lisa Fortier announces she’s been battling breast cancer
It’s been an unusual offseason for Gonzaga women’s basketball coach Lisa Fortier – unlike any offseason before.
Facing a life-altering sickness will do that.
Fortier announced in a video on social media on Tuesday that she’s battling cancer. She proudly showed off her bald head.
On Feb. 6, as the Zags were in the final stretch of their season, Fortier found out she had breast cancer.
“It was very unexpected for our team and for our family,” Fortier said in the video. “At that time we were right in the middle of an epic season.”
Gonzaga had its best season in Fortier’s 10 years at the helm, finishing 32-4 and advancing to the Sweet 16.
“It takes awhile to figure out what to do next when you hear something like that, that kind of news,” Fortier said. “We finished off our season really well, as everybody here knows. As soon as our season was over, we went into full go mode on how to take care of me.”
Fortier said she had successful surgery in April.
At the time, Gonzaga was in go mode in surveying the transfer portal to replenish a roster that saw the departure of four starters.
“When someone tells you you have Stage 2 or 3 breast cancer that’s spread to your lymph nodes, it’s startling,” Fortier said. “Once you get over the shock, it doesn’t take very long to realize just the beautiful life we get to live. You only get one of them and you don’t have control over all parts of it. So it’s really important to love your people well and to not let life pass you by. I’ve spent a lot of time this summer processing through that and just thinking about how lucky I am to work with these athletes and these coaches and these people at the university who are invested in what they do and care about people.”
Gonzaga signed four players in the transfer portal and appears to have more scholarships available. For now, Fortier said she’s leaning on her staff more when it comes to basketball matters.
“We’ve gone through a lot of treatments over the summer,” she said. “I made a decision to step away from the team a little bit to be focused on my health and getting myself back to the best version of myself that I could be going into the season or whenever I was ready to come back to the team. So I’ve 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 took up all the slack when I needed to focus on my health at that time.”
Fortier said staring the fragility of life in the face has been powerful.
‘My big takeaway so far is just not to take it for granted,” she said. “Whatever my situation is to enjoy each day that I get to show up to a place where I’m happy to be there and happy to be around the people that I’m around.”
Gone is Fortier’s trademark brown hair that hung to her waist.
“Now we’re moving into the next phase, plugging along at all the treatment,” she said. “I’m obviously feeling good. I look a little different but very excited for the season to come. We just wanted to share with you a little bit of what we’ve been going through. I know there will be a lot of questions. I didn’t shave my head in support for someone else. It’s just for me. I’ve gotten that question a lot. And I’m doing great, as you can see, and feeling really well-loved by our team and my family, Gonzaga University as a whole, and really the community and everybody. I feel very fortunate as I continue on with this battle, hopefully soon to put it behind me and just work toward what’s next. And we’re really excited for our season to come … Looking forward to seeing you guys out there and thank you for all your continued support.”