Nancy Querry Stepp

Nancy Querry Stepp grew up in the community of Epworth, Georgia during the middle part of the twentieth century. There were not many activities to entertain the young men and women of the community but Nancy developed a love for basketball at an early age. She filled most of her leisure time shooting baskets in her back yard. She devoted hours perfecting her two chief basketball weapons, a set shot from outside and a hook shot from closer to the basket. Throughout Nancy’s career, women’s basketball was a 6 vs 6 game and there was neither a shot clock nor a three point shot. During Nancy’s freshman and sophomore years, she competed in basketball for Epworth High School. At that time, the autumn of 1953 through the end of the 1954-55 school year, Fannin County had three high schools, Epworth, Blue Ridge and Fannin County High at Morganton. The high school at McCaysville burned in May of 1953 and, for athletic purposes, McCaysville High students attended Epworth High for two years. In the fall of 1955, a school consolidation plan was implemented and students from Epworth, McCaysville and Blue Ridge attended the new West Fannin High. Two significant events occurred when the McCaysville students entered high school at Epworth in the fall of 1953. First, Jim Haymore, the girls basketball coach at McCaysville moved to the same position at Epworth. Haymore moved on to West Fannin when that school opened, so Nancy played under the tutelage of Haymore throughout her high school career. Second, Peggy Thompson of McCaysville joined the Epworth team in 1953. Peggy was a formidable offensive player, so opponents were forced to contend with the Querry/Thompson duo for four years. Nancy Querry led her team in scoring throughout her elementary and high school years. She averaged well over twenty points per game in each of her four high school years as a starting forward. In the first game ever played by West Fannin, Nancy lit up the scoreboard for 31 points in a game against Murray County. She later posted 35 points in another game at Murray County in a game played in January of 1957. The Atlanta Journal, in a January 1955 review of West Fannin’s first year of basketball, had this to say about Nancy: “Miss Querry is an accomplished performer on the hardwood. She has an average of 30 points per game; three fifths of the points scored by the team”. FCSHOF member Ron Hartness, who was one year behind Nancy in school, says that “she was impossible to guard. If there had been a three point shot during her career that she would have averaged more than 30 points per game.” There were not a lot of awards for girls in athletics in the 1950s but Nancy’s classmates named her and Peggy Thompson as the Most Athletic seniors in the West Fannin graduating class of 1957. After graduation, Nancy married her classmate, the late Jack Stepp. She and Jack had two children and six grandchildren. Nancy earned a degree in Dietetic and Institutional Management from the University of Georgia and worked at Emory Hospital in Atlanta and Athens Regional Hospital. Nancy now makes her home in Dalton. She fills her time with church and family activities. Nancy Querry Stepp is a pioneer in Fannin County athletics and was arguably the first star-quality female athlete following the county-wide school consolidation program of 1955. She is a valued member of the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame.