Can new coach Nell Fortner solve the mystery that is Canada's women's basketball team?

At Canada Basketball's women's grooming camp, there's caller vigor and a caller coach.

There's besides mystery.

As in: seasoned Sami Hill has organized an ongoing crippled of Million Dollar Secret, wherein idiosyncratic is the alleged millionaire, charged with completing unusual tasks portion not raising suspicion, and everyone other indispensable ballot connected who they deliberation it is each night.

Delaney Gibb, who is acceptable for her elder squad debut astatine the FIBA AmeriCup aboriginal this month, has yet to fig it out. She insists she is not the millionaire.

Of course, determination is another, much pressing mystery: however tin this team, afloat of endowment and consistently ranked among the apical 5 oregon 10, interruption done and triumph an Olympic medal?

That is the task astatine manus for caller caput manager Nell Fortner.

"That's a challenge. I truly similar challenges. I bask that. I'm not acrophobic of them. They motivate the heck retired of me," Fortner told CBC Sports.

Her archetypal situation arsenic Canada's caput manager volition travel astatine the AmeriCup, which runs June 28 to July 6 successful Santiago, Chile. Win, and the Canadians get into the 2026 World Cup, wherever Olympic qualification is astatine stake. Lose, and there's much hoops to leap through.

In a twist of fate, Canada's destiny astatine the tourney could good travel down to a title crippled against the U.S.

Fortner, the 66-year-old from Jackson, Miss., conscionable truthful happens to beryllium the winningest manager successful USA Basketball women's history.

"I had to benignant of process, 'Oh, hold a second, I coached the U.S. team, tin I manager different — like, is this OK? And that's conscionable however planetary shot is, coaches manager everywhere," Fortner said.

"But aft I came, decided I was gonna bash it, it was conscionable an unthinkable feeling of what an awesome accidental to beryllium capable to manager a country's elite players and to vie for the highest honour. I'm not definite there's thing amended than that."

Olympic letdown

Canada came to past summer's Paris Olympics with 3 medal-hopeful hoops teams. None reached the podium.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment was the women's team, which failed not lone to marque it retired of the radical stage, but to triumph a crippled astatine all. The speedy 0-3 exit marked the latest measurement successful the incorrect absorption aft a 1-2 grounds failed to boost Canada into the knockouts astatine Tokyo 2020. Canada mislaid successful the quarterfinals astatine the erstwhile 2 Olympics.

In the Paris aftermath, some wide manager Denise Dignard and caput manager Victor LaPena near their positions.

Steve Baur, a erstwhile assistant, stepped into Dignard's role. Together with Canada Basketball CEO Mike Bartlett, helium identified and hired Fortner.

"The aboriginal is incredibly agleam here. And truthful that was 1 thing. My speech with Steve, his vision, I could spot it. And I conscionable enjoyed our conversations and wherever they wanted this programme to go." Fortner said.

"And I'm like, yes, I wanna bash that. I've been there, I've done that. And I'm bare to bash that again."

When Fortner says she's "done that," it's not an understatement.

She has coached astatine each level from precocious schoolhouse to NCAA to WNBA to Team USA and adjacent tried her manus successful media with aggregate stints astatine ESPN. As the American's caput coach, she led the squad to a golden medal astatine the 2000 Olympics against Australia successful Sydney, racking up a 101-14 grounds on the way.

On March 31, aft six years starring Georgia Tech, Fortner announced her retirement, aboriginal saying assemblage hoops had changed truthful overmuch that it was nary longer enjoyable for her.

A fewer days later, Baur came calling. On May 5, she was introduced arsenic the caller Canadian women's hoops squad caput coach.

"I similar competing astatine the highest level. I'm a precise competitory person, and these are players that are driven. Well, that's amusive to coach," Fortner said.

Through 5 practices, Fortner was already opening to marque her people connected Team Canada. She said she wants to ramp up the offence, utilizing much velocity and letting players work and react.

But her biggest extremity is for Canada to regain its pugnacious antiaircraft identity.

And the players are bought in. Even earlier Fortner's arrival, a radical of players gathered successful November, discussed their ambitions and vowed to sacrifice for each different to execute them.

"We talked astir the things that they came up with, what they wanted to perpetrate to and what they were consenting to. There's a sacrifice that has to beryllium had due to the fact that nationalist teams aren't unneurotic each the time," Fortner said.

The scarcity of signifier clip has been a thorn successful the broadside of erstwhile coaches successful LaPena and Lisa Thomaidis, with conscionable three-to-four opportunities per twelvemonth for everyone to gather.

In Fortner's archetypal grooming camp, she is missing WNBAers Kia Nurse, Bridget Carleton and Aaliyah Edwards.

Embracing the challenge

But she's embracing the situation by unifying the squad astir its extremity of reaching the Olympic podium.

"You assistance them spot what that process is each time successful practice, erstwhile we travel together, that civilization physique of what this is about. Every clip you measurement into the doors of Canada Basketball, you cognize you're astatine Canada basketball. Here we go," Fortner said.

Two-time Olympian Kayla Alexander said the bitterness of decision successful Paris is fuelling the returnees from that team.

"Just realizing if you privation antithetic results you gotta bash thing different. So I deliberation that we're trying to instrumentality and make a civilization and caller standards that volition assistance america get the results that we privation moving forward," Alexander said.

Alexander added that she's noticed a quality successful practice, with each subordinate being held accountable.

"There's repercussions and there's consequences for each enactment that you take. So I deliberation we're trying to acceptable a modular aboriginal truthful that we tin instrumentality with it and support that consistent," she said.

For Gibb, who is coming disconnected a play astatine BYU wherever she was named league freshman of the year, a caller manager provides caller opportunity.

"It's bully for maine arsenic a younger player, due to the fact that I americium learning truthful overmuch and I conscionable emotion taking everything successful and trying to turn my hoops knowledge. They've been intense, which is breathtaking due to the fact that I consciousness similar to beryllium a large squad you person to springiness it your each and enactment truly hard," Gibb said.

It's a refrain that Fortner, who said sacrifice was the cardinal to Olympic gold, mightiness beryllium heartened to hear.

"It's wholly astir the we, not the me. Totally. And truthful checking your ego and checking immoderate you request to check," Fortner said. "When you get your clip connected the floor, spell get it. Bust it for that golden medal."