SPOKANE, Wash. — It's been a trying few weeks for Gonzaga women's basketball head coach Lisa Fortier.
She lost her brother then father in a five-year span before she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Through the tough times, Fortier has remained a leader on the court, and when it was time for her to need support, the Gonzaga community was right behind her.
Coach Fortier learned she was battling stage two to three breast cancer that had spread to one of her lymph nodes. It presented yet another hurdle for last year's Kathy Delaney Smith Coach of the Year.
"I just feel like I'm not the same person, and so it's interesting to try to figure out how to feel, you know what I mean, I'm trying to be authentic to me, and just take every day to time," Lisa Fortier said.
Toward the end of 2023, Fortier didn't feel like herself. Then in January, she found a lump while she was in the shower. After receiving tests a few weeks later, Fortier was diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma.
"I think I was caught off guard," Lisa said. "My defenses were down a little bit. We'd had a little bit [of] a long week, and then just wondering what was next."
Fortier received the diagnosis at work and shared the news with her coaching staff, which includes her husband, Craig,
"Definitely very shocked, caught off guard, which, you know sounds a little bit odd, given that we were doing tests and trying to figure things out, but just certainly didn't think that was what was next," Craig said. "And yeah, now you kind of went from not thinking about it to like trying to figure everything out all at once. So certainly a 180 pretty quick."
Complicating matters was the fact that the Zags were in the midst of one of their best seasons in program history, and while on their way to making a run in the NCAA tournament Fortier called a meeting to break the news to her team.
"I think they were expecting just another team meeting, and so I think that they were, they were really caught off guard. I think that they were pretty shocked," Lisa said.
The news was particularly startling to then junior guard Esther Little.
"My mom actually got diagnosed with breast cancer, and then she's passed away now, but from a different cause," Little said "But it kind of hit home for me seeing Craig in that room too, because my dad has obviously raised me and my two siblings basically as a single dad, since she passed away, so knowing the possibility of what could happen is the first thing that went through my mind."
"I think that they were taken aback, but very quickly, I mean Destiny and Brenna, I remember both of those two speaking up and asking, like, what they could do for me, and then reminding me that they needed me to take care of myself and that they would be fine, and so it was really encouraging," Lisa said.
After consulting with her doctors, Coach Fortier decided to put off her treatment and surgery until after the season. Eventually, Fortier had a double mastectomy and would lose her hair due to chemotherapy and radiation treatment.
"It's just a temporary thing that we have to go through right now, and that I believe that it's going to make me better on the other side of it, and the people around me for having gone through this. And so for whatever reason this time, I was able to kind of get there a little bit quicker than usual," Lisa said.
Fortier stepped away from the team for a period of time during the summer to focus on her health. Despite undergoing treatment, Fortier was determined not to miss this summer's Olympic Games in Paris so that she could be there for a few of her former players, as well as senior forward Yvonne Ejim.
"I think Coach [Lisa] was adamant that it was gonna happen," Craig said. "I wasn't sure about all the logistics, but usually when she's adamant about something, it ends up happening."
"I think a big part of me getting there was coming here, so [it was] very good that those two areas of my life could kind of clash together at that moment," Ejim said.
It's that selflessness and care for her players that led to Fortier's story being shared throughout the world of women's college basketball, as she received gifts and words of encouragement from several programs and big names across the industry.
"I feel grateful for so many people who care about us, and just to have the mindset of like we're going to be supportive of people, and that's our attitude is we're going to love people well, and would you do the best that we can?" Lisa said. "It's been wonderful how people have wrapped their hands around our family."
Not only that, but Fortier has also become a symbol of toughness and perseverance.
"When I struggle to wake up in the morning and it's like, 'oh, it's a hard day,' you just think, 'Oh, my coach was like, going through cancer and going through treatment, but she's showing up to practice right now. I'm not dealing with a hard day. She's dealing with a hard day.' So it just makes it easier to show up when you know your coach can battle through and has the strength to show up for you," Little said.
Fortier's battle has also highlighted her strongest qualities as a human being.
"She's just very consistent and she's more selfless than you think she is," Ejim said. "I think those are two of the biggest things that I kind of learned from Coach Lisa, and just how she tackled like that experience."
"It was an opportunity to just see her at her best," Craig said. "I've seen her at her best before, but this was a kind of continual stretch over the course of six months where she was just trying to be the best version of herself for other people, for herself, for our family. And so I don't know that that was a surprise, but certainly, you're in awe for sure.
For anyone facing a difficult time ahead, Coach Fortier's message is simple.
"You can do it," Lisa said. "There were different stages where I didn't know if I could, even as positive as I am, but trying to get outside, breathe fresh air and just look at every day as a gift is something that I've really tried, and I think that it's really helped ease a lot of what would otherwise be considered pain or struggle that I would have had if I didn't have that kind of attitude."
Coach Fortier will eventually receive another big surgery and will continue to make doctor visits every three months to get tests and blood work done to ensure she is cancer-free, all while trying to lead the Zags back to the NCAA tournament for the eighth consecutive season.
You can watch Fortier's full interview exclusively on KREM 2+ or down below.