Soccer, Basketball
Favorite athlete: Skylar Diggins
Favorite team: Eagles
Favorite memory: Playing in the District One championship in basketball my junior year.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Scoring in my opponent's basket
Music on mobile device: Jhene Aiko (I listen to R&B)
Future plans: Attend college and play basketball
Words to live by: “Don’t worry, be happy.”
One goal before turning 30: Buy my own home and travel.
One thing people don’t know about me: I love getting my nails done!
By Mary Jane Souder
Lauren Fortescue is a competitor. Plain and simple.
It’s a trait that serves the Plymouth Whitemarsh senior well and one she exhibited even as a youngster shooting hoops with older sister Pattie in the family’s driveway.
“We would push each other so much to the point where we would almost fight with each other and one of us would storm inside, something silly like that,” Fortescue said with a laugh.
It’s that fierce competitive drive combined with athletic talent that made Fortescue such a welcome addition when she transferred from Norristown to PW last year as a junior. The two-sport standout stepped into the starting lineup of both the soccer and basketball squads and made an immediate impact.
Ryan Zehren didn’t know a whole lot about Fortescue when she appeared on the scene, but he immediately liked what he saw.
“She always plays with a chip on her shoulder, and that’s the style of play that I like,” the Colonials’ soccer coach said. “She never backs down from anybody. She accepts any challenge that comes her way. She’s such a great girl. She has a smile on her face all the time off the field.
“On the field – once she crossed that line, she will rip your head off. It could be her best friend she was going up against – you’re not friends when you’re out on the court. It’s all business, it’s all serious. That’s what makes her such a unique and special player.”
Zehren admits he didn’t know how valuable Fortescue was to his soccer team until - after being sidelined with a stress fracture - the senior midfielder returned to the lineup with two games remaining this past fall.
“It’s not like she could be replaced, but we were doing all right without her,” Zehren said. “When I saw her play, I was like, ‘Man, she’s a force.’ She’s non-stop, 100 percent all-out effort all the time.
“We had a very successful season. How much better could we have been if she had been there every game? I don’t know. I can only base it on those two games. Watching her in those two games, I said, ‘Oh wow, I can see what we were missing.’”
Dan Dougherty doesn’t need even one game without the senior guard to recognize just how important she’s been since stepping into the starting lineup last winter.
“She’s been a difference maker to our program,” the PW basketball coach said. “The year before we were 16-7, made it to the first round of districts and we lost.
“Last year she put us over the top, allowing us to go from a middle of the pack team to one of the elite teams in District One.
Fortescue has been the perfect complement to all-state senior Taylor O’Brien.
“She provides an outside shooting threat that doesn’t allow defenses to clamp down and take away the lane,” the Colonials’ coach said. “She has great instincts.
“She’s always good for some steals every game, and she’s also very good at finding her teammates.”
While Fortescue may have been the missing piece that vaulted the Colonials basketball team to new heights last year – an SOL American Conference title and a district runner-up finish, she’s much more than that, according to her coach.
“She’s a lot of fun and brings a lot of fun to the program,” Dougherty said. “The thing I probably enjoy the most about Fort is how willing she is to be coached. She’s not a kid that pouts or sulks when you try and coach her up and teach her what to do.
“She’s very accepting and very appreciative of the coaching. Coming from Norristown to PW, she’s very appreciative of everything that people do for her here and very appreciative of the opportunity she has here.”
*****
The idea of playing for a district title never crossed Lauren Fortescue’s mind.
“If you told me my freshman year that I was going to the district championship with PW, I would have laughed in your face,” she said. “I did not expect anything like that to come to me my junior year. It was a dream come true.”
A dream that would have seemed far-fetched even though she grew up playing community youth sports with some of the players that are now her teammates.
Fortescue has been competing in soccer and basketball for almost as long as she can remember. She also played softball and had a brief stint with lacrosse, but soccer and basketball stuck with basketball trumping even soccer.
After attending St. Helena’s from kindergarten through seventh grade, Fortescue went to Norristown through her sophomore year before transferring to PW as a junior.
“As much as I knew some of them, it was hard because I think transitioning during high school is going to be a little hard either way because everyone has their group of friends,” Fortescue said. “I think overall this was a great decision for me.
“I’m doing well academically, better than I was doing. I think that kids at PW just focus on their academics and sports, and it makes me want to be as good or better. I think it was a good transition.
“Honestly, the hardest part was becoming comfortable with myself. Even though I did know the girls, it was kind of just being comfortable and trying to fit in.”
Fortescue stepped into a starting role for the soccer team that first fall.
“The girls were so nice and very welcoming,” she said.
According to her coach, she was a good fit from the outset.
“She was a tremendous asset to the team and made an impact right away,” Zehren said. “She played midfield and could play forward as well. Honestly, she could play anywhere.”
Fortescue was sidelined for almost all of her final high school soccer season last fall to give the stress fractures in her feet a chance to heal.
“She’s a team before me type of player,” Zehren said. “She’s not a me before team at all.
“What showed that was – she came to practice every single day. The only time she missed a day was when she had a doctor’s appointment or was doing some type of physical therapy. Every day she was at soccer practice, cheering on her teammates.”
This winter, a healthy Fortescue is back on the court for a Colonial squad that is once again atop the conference standings and in the top 10 in the District One 6A power rankings. She is averaging 10 points, three steals and three assists a game but beyond that is the consummate teammate.
“She’s just a fun kid to have on the team,” Dougherty said. “Her teammates love her. She’s definitely a kid on the team everyone roots for to do well.”
Ask Fortescue what she appreciates most about her two years at PW, and she makes no mention of the wins or the opportunity to play at Villanova University for a district crown.
“My teammates are just so positive and have such a good head on their shoulders,” she said. “They’re really just a great influence on me from their grades and from their dedication to their sports.
“It’s so different because they take so much pride in it. I think that’s what has really helped me.”
Fortescue is planning to continue her basketball career at the collegiate level with Salisbury the frontrunner to land her talents. She is planning to major in respiratory therapy.
Fortescue believes her two years at PW will have a long-term impact.
“At Norristown, I didn’t really push myself as I’m pushing myself now,” she said. “My GPA has gone up, and I’ve actually had the opportunity to go to an honors program in college.
“I think that’s something maybe I couldn’t have done before, and that’s something that’s really important to me.”
