TORONTO (June 25, 2025) – Nell Fortner will make her Senior Women’s National Team coaching debut at the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2025.

The FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2025 is set for June 28-July 6 in Santiago, Chile. All the action will be streaming live on FIBA’s Courtside 1891. Fans can watch for free by creating an account.

Fortner will coach Canada for the first time at the tournament, as the 2000 Olympic gold medallist, [Year] FIBA World Champion, former WNBA coach and executive, and recently retired NCAA coach attempts to help Canada win AmeriCup gold for the fourth-time in the program’s history.

Fortner is the winningest coach in USA Basketball women’s history, with a staggering 101-14 record, including gold medals at the 1998 FIBA World Championship and the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. She also served as the first head coach and general manager of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever and guided three NCAA programs – Purdue, Auburn and Georgia Tech – to national tournament appearances, earning Coach of the Year honours in three Power Four conferences, and brought Georgia Tech to only its second-ever Sweet 16 in 2021.

The FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2025 officially ushers in the beginning of a new quad for the Senior Women’s National Team ahead of next September’s FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2026 in Germany, as well as the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Joining Fortner on the bench at the AmeriCup will be assistant coaches Carly Clarke, Murriel Page and Christie Sides.

Clarke and Page return after having been a part of the Senior Women’s National Team’s staff at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. 

Clarke, who has been a part of Canada Basketball for the last decade-plus, has won two medals on the world stage with the U19 Women’s National Team while also balancing her role as head coach of the Toronto Metropolitan University Bold women’s basketball team.

Page is set to reprise her role as an assistant coach for the Senior Women’s National Team for the third-straight summer after initially joining the staff ahead of the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2023 when Canada won bronze. Page is currently an assistant coach with the Miami Hurricanes women’s basketball team.

Meanwhile, Sides joins the Canadian coaching staff bringing an extensive resume including roles in both the NCAA and WNBA, and most recently, with the Indiana Fever, where she spent two seasons as the head coach and led the team to the franchise’s first playoff appearance since 2016. 

Canada will share Group A with Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic and El Salvador, with the top four teams in the group advancing to the quarter-finals. From there, a single-knockout format will follow.

The top six teams will earn entry into 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup qualifying tournaments. 

Canada’s Senior Women’s National Team is ranked seventh in the FIBA World Ranking Women, presented by Nike.