Class of ’84 : SCOTT FORTUNE, Olympic Volleyball Player : Late Mother’s Drive, Strength Still Inspires Him

Scott Fortune entered Laguna Beach High School in 1980 as a reluctant volleyball player, participating in the sport only under the insistence of his mother.

Four years later, Fortune had played for two Southern Section championship teams and wasbeing wooed by the top college programs.

And by 1988, Fortune had an Olympic gold medal draped around his neck.

Shortly after the Olympics, Fortune went to the Richard Henry Dana Elementary School in Dana Point, where his mother had been a teacher. Linda Fortune died of cancer a year and a half before the Olympics, and Fortune paused at a memorial in her honor on the campus grounds.

“My mom was the one who got me into volleyball,” Fortune said. “She was the president of the Laguna Beach Volleyball Club, and she made me go to clinics and work hard to get better.

“Her drive and strength is an inspiration to me. She went to school and taught those kids every day even when she was in a wheelchair. The gold medal I won was for her, not me.”

Now, eight years after leaving Laguna Beach, Fortune is still playing inspired volleyball.

He has played with the U.S. national team the last four years, turning down six-figure contract offers from the Italian pro leagues that lured away stars such as Karch Kiraly and Steve Timmons.

Instead of playing in Italy, Fortune trains with the national team in the morning, and makes a modest living as a loan officer with a San Diego bank in the afternoon.

Fortune, a role player on the 1988 Olympic team, became the leader on a team devastated by the departure of veteran players such as Kiraly and Timmons, who have said they might return to the team for the Summer Olympics.

“It was a tough decision to stay,” Fortune said, “but I wanted to represent the U.S. again. The last four years have been exciting, but also frustrating. I’m the captain, so everyone has been looking to me during trying times.”

Until his mother convinced him otherwise, Fortune thought he was destined to be a basketball star. He was 5 feet 11 as a high school freshman, but grew to 6-4 by his senior year. He is now 6-6.

“I would have to describe myself as a skinny, scrawny, 6-4 kid in high school,” Fortune said.

He earned All-South Coast League honors three times as a point guard, and was the team’s MVP after averaging 18 points and 12 rebounds as a senior.

He had planned to play baseball in the spring, but his mother convinced him to try volleyball instead.

As a sophomore, he was a reserve on the Artists’ Southern Section 4-A championship team, and started on the school’s section title team the following year.

“Winning that first section title got my volleyball career going,” Fortune said. “I finally realized how much it could do for me.”

Fortune turned down a volleyball scholarship offer from UCLA to attend Stanford, where he earned first-team All-American honors in 1987 and ’89 while majoring in economics. His brother, Todd, played volleyball at California.

Fortune is one in a long line of standout volleyball players who have attended Laguna Beach, including Olympian Dusty Dvorak and former U.S. national team member and pro beach player Adam Johnson.

“It’s really neat there because the community treats volleyball as the No. 1 sport,” Fortune said. “They’ve always supported us.”