1965-66 East Fannin High School Girls Basketball Team

East Fannin High School first opened its doors to students in the fall of 1955 and closed 21 years later when consolidated into the new Fannin County High School in Blue Ridge. East Fannin sponsored boys and girls basketball teams that competed with other high schools in each of those 21 years. The 1965-66 East Fannin basketball teams achieved a level of success never reached before or after that season. For it was in that year that both the girls and boys teams advanced to the Class B state tournament in Macon. Compared with their male counterparts, the 1965-66 East Fannin girls were a young team with only four seniors, including starting guards Barbara Richards and Mary Stewart along with Kathy Allen and Donna Mull. All three starting forwards, Susie Helton, Gwendolyn Bryant and Linda Lance, and starting guard Linda Wilcox were juniors. Other team members were juniors Diane Farmer and Lucy McKinney and sophomores Beulah Nichols, Kay Bailey and Madeline Falls. The girls were led by first year coach Roscoe Nash, who succeeded Ron Ely, coach of both the girls and boys teams in 1964-65. Nash was a 1965 graduate of the University of Georgia and East Fannin was the first teaching and coaching stop in his career. During his playing days at Early County High School in Blakely, Georgia and Abraham Baldwin Agricultural Junior College, Nash had competed in basketball and cross country. He stressed fundamentals and emphasized character building and pride in the young ladies whom he led. The 1965-66 East Fannin girls posted a regular season record of 19-4, highlighted by two wins over Copper Basin and two victories over Union County. Another high point came in the Region 4B, Area 1 tournament when, on successive nights, the Kittens routed Union County 35-9 and, in the championship game, were victorious over Towns County for the third time during the season, by a count of 50-40. Junior forward Gwen Bryant scored 25 and 20 points in the two games. Bryant was the team’s leading scorer throughout the year, averaging 20 points per game. The East Fannin girls did not taste defeat again until the finals of the overall 4B tournament at Snellville when they lost to Stone Mountain. The runner-up finish, however, was enough to propel the 1965-66 East Fannin High School girls to the state Class B tournament in Macon, where they bowed in the first round to Montgomery County. The girls finished the season with an overall record of 23-6 and the only state tournament appearance in the history of East Fannin girls basketball. The singular accomplishments of the 1965-66 East Fannin girls and boys basketball teams have earned them team memberships in the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame.