Although there will technically be a new head coach in charge of the Portage High School boys soccer team, the man taking over is anything but a Portage newcomer. The school has named Will Fortenberry, who has been a member of the Portage soccer scene for most of his life, the program’s head honcho.
Fortenberry has been a part of the Portage soccer program since stepping foot on the Warpath for the first time as a freshman in 2003. After graduating in 2007 and playing a season of college soccer at Calumet College, he transferred to Indiana University Northwest and began his Portage coaching career at the age of 19 as an assistant to Todd Strom in 2008.
When Strom left the boys soccer team prior to the 2012 season, Fortenberry was a candidate to take over. However, the Portage Athletic Department decided to bring back A.J. Monroe, who had previously served as Portage head coach during Fortenberry’s playing career from 2003-2006, to temporarily take the helm.
“We thought it was a good move for A.J. to come back and mentor him again,” Athletic Director Kelly Bermes said. “He was going into his first year of teaching. Everybody knows that the first year can be tough acclimating to standards and curriculum. He hung in there and he knew where we were coming from.”
When Monroe retook the reigns to start the 2012 season, Bermes knew it was a temporary fix. Monroe wanted to be able to spend time with his children and focus on his duty as the Director of Public Works for the city of Portage.
“We didn’t really have a candidate at that time that we felt was ready,” Bermes said. “Both Will and Brett Gorden were assistants at that time. At that point, we weren’t really sure.”
Fortenberry recognizes the importance of putting an emphasis on retooling Portage’s youth programs. He, Monroe and Ralph Mundt of the Portage Parks Department have made strides with the youth program the last two years, a trend that Fortenberry plans to continue.
“It starts young,” he said. “Soccer is a technical sport. It’s not football, where it’s all about who is bigger, faster and stronger. Soccer is one of the most technical sports in the world if not the most technical sport in the world and the reason why the United States is kind of lacking is because most other countries’ kids have been playing soccer since they were out of the womb.”
Fortenberry hopes to follow suit with Duneland Athletic Conference powers Crown Point, Valparaiso, Chesterton and Lake Central, all of which have developed strong feeder systems.
“Some of our kids from Portage come to the high school and they can’t pass the ball correctly,” Fortenberry said. “You can’t teach a kid who can’t pass the ball tactics because they can’t pass the ball. Passing and dribbling are two of the main skills of the game.”
The Indians are coming off a season that saw them upset Valparaiso in the first round of the sectional, only to fall to Chesterton in the sectional championship. A sectional championship loss to Chesterton was not foreign to Fortenberry, who experienced two sectional-final defeats to the Trojans during his playing career. His senior season, Portage posted a 16-2 record, with both losses coming to Chesterton. The sting of the 2-1 defeat in the sectional championship is a feeling Fortenberry will never forget.
“That’s why I have a little bit of a personal rivalry between myself and Chesterton,” he said.
According to Fortenberry, Portage is two positions shy of being a perennial sectional championship threat.
“This has been the truth for a pretty long time,” he said. “Our team has not had a consistent goal-scorer. We haven’t had a creative center attacking mid who likes to get the ball who can do anything with the ball.”
Portage has yet to hire any assistant coaches to join Fortenberry on the new-look coaching staff.
Fortenberry recently bought a house in Portage, indicating that this is a position that he plans to hold for an extended period of time.
“Will is a home-grown Portage boy,” Bermes said. “We’re looking for a long-term guy and we’re looking for some stability. That’s basically what Will is about and what Will offers.”