MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The human-element has been ignored for athletes throughout most of the last six months, but the WVU football team had to rally around one of their own who dealt with a personal tragedy.
On Aug. 15, coach Neal Brown said sophomore Nicktroy Fortune left fall camp after the death of his mother, Iliana, at age 47 in Lawrenceville, Ga.
Brown noted Fortune could take all the time he needed to spend time with family, but three weeks later, as the Mountaineers are set to open their season Saturday against Eastern Kentucky, Fortune was penciled in as a starting right side cornerback, opposite Dreshun Miller. Although Fortune took the needed and understandable time off, he worked to remain in necessary shape to earn that spot.
“Nicktroy continued to condition while he was away from the team,” Brown said Tuesday. “He has a lot of self-discipline. It was important for him to stay at home and we encouraged him to be with his family during that time.
“He stayed in touch, he stayed in really good physical shape, he was able to Zoom into our position meetings and our team meetings, so he had a good feel for what was going on in practice and what we were installing. Conditioning … he still has some work to do, but he will play (Saturday) and we think he’ll play well.”
Fortune played significant snaps as a true freshman in 2019, forced into playing time due to injuries to starter Keith Washington, along with overall depth concerns at cornerback. Although he was thrust into action early, Fortune held his own, appearing in 10 of 12 games, totaling 16 tackles — one for loss — and two passes defended.
Fortune’s talent and ability was not something cornerbacks coach Jahmile Addae was concerned about in Fortune’s absence at camp — it was making sure he was mentally and emotionally in a good place.
“The time in which he missed obviously was a necessity,” Addae said. “The young man has done a really good job of handling himself and his business all throughout the situation. For us, we wanted to make sure that he was in a really good headspace. I think the most important part of an athlete is the mental. Once the mental’s gone, the body kind of follows. And so for us, we just wanted to make sure we rehabbed him more so on the mental piece and supported him throughout it all, knowing that when you get support, that’s part of the rehab.”
Fortune did not miss much install, and with COVID-19 forcing teams to work around face-to-face meetings anyway, he was able to sit in on Zoom calls with his position group while he was in Georgia. To Addae, there was little doubt Fortune would handle this bad situation with grace.
“He did a really good job of compartmentalizing his feelings, still keeping football in as part of his everyday regimen, still doing workouts, sending us his film, following any workout plan which we gave him,” Addae said. “We were on Zoom meetings anyway so he didn’t miss much in terms of our day-to-day.
“Nick’s always been a really, really punctual guy, he’s always been really sharp, he’s always been about his business. And so I knew that if this had to happen to anyone and they would be able to handle it in a positive sense, it would be him and he did so. He’s done a good job.”
Another Addae at safety
Alonzo Addae, cousin to Jahmile, was at the top of the Week 1 depth chart at free safety, following a move from cornerback to safety out of need.
After Kerry Martin Jr. opted out of the 2020 season because of COVID concerns, there was a hole at the back end of the defense, and Addae, a transfer from New Hampshire, grabbed hold after his position switch.
Jahmile played safety for the Mountaineers from 2001-05, earning All-Big East honors.
“Alonzo spent the last year on the scout team, really playing everybody’s best defensive back, Rover, player … whatever we needed, and I think that’s really good teaching,” Jahmile said. “It allowed him to get matched up with some of our best players on our premier team, and really showed that he belonged. He earned a lot of respect going down there giving a look, but also doing an elite job at it.
“I also know he came from a situation wasn’t as advantaged as this one, so he has a bit of a gratefulness that maybe some other guys don’t have.”
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