Leah Fortune: Dupage County girls soccer captain
One day this season, inclement weather intervened on a Wheaton Academy practice. Instead, players showed up inside the school in street clothes, coffee in hand, ready for a film session.
Leah Fortune showed up in full training gear and spent time in a hallway of the school playing 1-on-1 against an assistant coach.
"Some of the players were happy about it, but when Leah found out practice was canceled, she was like, 'What? That stinks,' " said Warriors teammate Jenn Lee.
After lightning postponed the Warriors' sectional game against Walter Payton High School last week, Warriors' coach Scott Marksberry returned to Wheaton Academy's home field to clean up the bench.
"As I walked up I heard singing on the field," he said. "It was Leah and some of her teammates running around the field without a ball, in the rain, just going through the motions of what they'd do in a game situation. And they were singing."
For players and coaches soccer can sometimes feel more like work than play. At those times what they need to do is tear a page out of Fortune's playbook and paste it on their walls.
Be it in a school hallway or in the rain without a soccer ball, Fortune's love for the game this season has been irrepressible.
"She has a joy for the game that's just infectious," Marksberry said.
It may have been while training with the Brazilian national team that Fortune rediscovered her love for soccer, while staring out over the mountains of Brazil. Her faith and her family doubtlessly helped that rediscovery along.
However it happened, the captain of this year's Daily Herald DuPage County All-Area team in girls soccer found a new level of exuberance for the sport this year.
"I'm so blessed," Fortune said. "When you have joy for the game it goes everywhere with you. It doesn't leave you."
Foreign legion
It was prior to her junior year that Fortune embarked on the unique experience of playing with the U-20 Brazilian team. Leah's father is Hudson Fortune, coach of countless local soccer stars when they were youngsters. He was working in Brazil, family in tow, when Karen Fortune gave birth to Leah, thus endowing her with the naturalized right to one day train with the Brazilians.
Brazilian soccer stresses high skills and a graceful, downright mischievous style of play. It is often referred to as the samba of international play, where dribbles and flicks are preferred over physical play and long balls sent over the top.
There are no players in the world more skilled with a ball at their feet than the Brazilians. And above all, they aim to have fun playing the game.
"Brazil has impacted my soccer beyond what I thought it would. It changed my whole view on soccer," Fortune said. "It has really been a blessing that God has given me."
With 27 goals and 12 assists in 20 games, Fortune led the Warriors to the Class 2A finals this season. In her four years at Wheaton Academy, she has amassed 85 goals and 52 assists. Texas will be getting a player with unquestioned bona fides next year.
The foot skills are there, along with the field vision, distribution skills, nose for the net and a pair of strong shooting legs. The coaches of Wheaton Academy's annual Wheaton Cup opponents are all happy to see her finally graduate.
"She's just incredibly good," said St. Francis coach Tim Dailey. "She dominated against us."
"She has the ability to take over a game, and she certainly did that against us," said Wheaton Warrenville South coach Guy Callipari.
"She's a talent unique to my dozen or so years of coaching high school soccer," said Wheaton North coach Tim McEvilly. "She does so many different things."
Fortune had some of her biggest games against the four Wheaton-area teams that play for the Cup. Fortune scored 6 goals in three wins against the Spartans, Tigers and Falcons, helping to secure Wheaton Academy's first Wheaton Cup.
In addition to Wheaton North and WW South, the Warriors also have wins over Class 3A programs York and Lyons Twp. this year.
It was during the York game on March 28 that Fortune put in a first bid as the area's best player. She buried a pair of free-kick goals to erase York's 2-0 lead, then bent a corner kick to the goalmouth that Becca Long finished.
Fortune departed to play with the Brazilian national team soon thereafter. After playing forward on her club team and midfield for her high school team, she found herself thousands of miles from home competing with some of the best players in the world - as an outside defender.
Nervous, Leah?
"I was scared out of my mind," Fortune said. "I was the youngest one on the U-20 team, and when I got called up the last time to the full team I was playing with players who had been in three Olympics."
"I think it's natural to doubt yourself in that situation, but you also have to see the opportunity for growth. My family believes in me, I have people back home who believe in me, and God gives you the passion and the strength to do things you don't think you can do."
Ask Fortune about her considerable skills on a soccer field and she artfully guides the conversation towards her teammates, her family, her faith, her coaches - essentially everywhere else but in her own direction.
"That's definitely in her nature," Lee said. "She doesn't like talking about herself. She's the kind of person who gives the glory to everyone else."
A fiery competitior
But make no mistake about the player with the joy in her heart the humility to spare: Fortune also has a competitive fire in her belly that never leaves her, no matter the stage.
"Whether it's the U-20 World Cup or the Wheaton Cup, she just wants to win," Marksberry said. "Players can sometimes go through the motions in games or in training sessions, but it never happens with her. She just has a desire to be competitive."
"I wouldn't be playing soccer if I wasn't competitive, if it wasn't in my blood," Fortune said. "That's what brings life and energy to the game."
Where the high school versus club soccer debate is concerned, Fortune believes in every player's right to make an independent decision. But there was no way she wasn't playing for Wheaton Academy.
From talented freshmen like Crystal Thomas and Ally Witt, to seniors like Long and Lee, Fortune has enjoyed every minute of her time at Wheaton Academy.
"For me, I just couldn't pass up the relationships with the girls I've grown with," Fortune said. "To have them looking into your eyes before a game with passion, and heart, and determination, and have them believing in you - nothing compares with it."
"This has been one of the best teams I've ever been a part of, because of the relationships and friendships I've been able to have."
The Warriors are riding a 15-game unbeaten streak into Friday's state semifinal game against Sycamore, at North Central College in Naperville, where Leah's older sisters, Ariel and Calah, will be cheering her on from the stands.
The last time they were at North Central, Ariel and Calah were helping Wheaton Academy win its first state title, in 2004. Their little sister sees hope for a second title on the way.
"I really think we can make it to the state final with this team," Leah said. "We just have to believe in each other."
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>All-Area Teams</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Cook County</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=298406"><B>Softball</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298405">Softball captain: Nikki Goranson</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298398"><B>Baseball</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298397">Baseball captain: Jon Carlson</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298403"><B>Girls soccer</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298402">Soccer captains: Laura Mayer, Mary Kubiuk</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298401"><B>Boys volleyball</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298400">Volleyball captain: Chris Falknor</a></li> </ul> <h2>DuPage County</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=298388"><B>Softball</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298392">Softball captain: Hannah Santora</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298388"><B>Baseball</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298582">Baseball captain: Jack DeAno</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298391"><B>Girls soccer</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298394">Soccer captain: Leah Fortune</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298390"><B>Boys volleyball</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298393">Volleyball captain: Joe Kelly</a></li> </ul> <h2>Fox Valley</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=298676"><B>Softball</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298362">Softball captain: Kimberly Pierce</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298660"><B>Baseball</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298356">Baseball co-captain: Brian Brauer</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298355">Baseball co-captain: Craig Lipp</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298658"><B>Girls soccer</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298361">Soccer captain: Cori Wronski</a></li> </ul> <h2>Lake County</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=298410"><B>Softball</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298408">Softball captain: Olivia Duehr</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298407"><B>Baseball</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298396">Baseball captain: Chas Evans</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298404"><B>Girls soccer</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298409">Soccer captain: Courtney Levy</a></li> </ul> <h2>Tri-Cities</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=298385"><B>Softball</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298379">Softball captain:Stephanie Becker</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298383"><B>Baseball</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298380">Baseball captain: Matt Milroy</a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298382"><B>Girls soccer</B></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=298378">Soccer captain: Emily Hinchman</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>