Two months ago, Georgia Tech athletics announced women’s basketball coach Nell Fortner had signed a contract extension that would make her the leader of the Yellow Jackets through the 2029-30 season.
But on Monday, Fortner officially announced her retirement from coaching, a decision she spoke about Tuesday.
“The atmosphere today in college athletics, it’s not for me. And it’s changing so, so much,” Fortner said. “I’ve been blessed to come through it and had a career that wasn’t so difficult with how the NCAA is trying to run things now. It’s just time. It’s a new era, it’s time for a new voice. There’s a lot to learn and navigate in this new era. I’m just not ready to do that.”
Fortner’s tenure at Tech navigated uncertain and murky waters virtually from the outset yet produced a litany of triumphs over six seasons. A little less than six years ago to the day Tuesday, Fortner was introduced as Tech’s coach.
Her first team won 20 games and likely would have made the NCAA Tournament if not for the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Her next five teams qualified for two NCAA Tournaments (the 2020-21 team made the Round of 16) and received a WBIT invite in 2024.
This past season the Jackets started a program-record 15-0, won 22 games and reached the NCAA Tournament, where they lost to Richmond in the first round in Los Angeles. That squad was built with a talented freshman class and a pair of juniors in Kara Dunn and Tonie Morgan.
But three of those freshmen, including standout Dani Carnegie, entered the NCAA’s transfer portal shortly after the season. Morgan and Dunn have done the same in the hours following Fortner’s retirement decision.
“At some point it’s just time,” Fortner said, insisting the current college landscape wasn’t the main factor in her decision. “Does the atmosphere — is it pleasant in my eyes? No, it’s not. But I can’t say it’s the absolute thing that makes me walk away. I was trying to navigate it, you’re trying to learn it and all that kind of stuff. Do I like it? No. It just feels like the right time.”
A graduate of New Braunfels High School in Texas, Fortner went to the University of Texas to play volleyball and basketball in the late 1970s. She became a member of the school’s athletics Hall of Fame in 2001.
Fortner began her career coaching at the high school level before entering the college ranks in the mid-1980s. Her first head coaching gig was at Purdue for the 1996-97 season followed by a short stint with USA Basketball — she led the Americans to a gold medal in 2000 Olympic Games.
Before arriving at Tech in 2019, Fortner coached the Indiana Fever in the WNBA at the turn of the century and then Auburn from 2004-12. She left Auburn to begin a career in broadcasting before returning to the sidelines at McCamish Pavilion.
“I am able to walk away from this program and from college athletics feeling very proud about what we’ve accomplished here at Georgia Tech,” Fortner said. “Super proud. Really proud of the athletes and really proud of everyone that had a part of what we did here. It’s a happy day for me. It’s maybe a little bit of a sad day, but I feel so grateful that I had the opportunity here.”
Fortner said she will have little to no input on Tech’s future coach but said she will be more than willing to lend a helping hand or pick up the phone if that new coach has any questions or concerns. She went on to thank Tech athletic director J Batt and Tech associate athletic director Joeleen Akin (both present for Fortner’s news conference Tuesday at McCamish Pavilion) and said she owed it to them to make her decision now so they could move forward with what’s best for Tech basketball.
As for the immediate future, Fortner said she has no plans other than a steady dose of decompression.
“It’s the end of a college coaching career for me. But not end of doing something because I got a lot of energy left,” she added. “I don’t know what that looks like for me, but I know I won’t be a college basketball coach.”
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