Tom Foster

His players called him Coach Tom. Everybody else, from 1960 through 1974, knew him as the man who turned West Fannin boys basketball into a North Georgia powerhouse — 256 wins against 111 losses in fourteen seasons. Foster came to Fannin County from Lenoir City, Tennessee, where he'd been a three-sport standout and where he'd later be inducted into the Lenoir City Sports Hall of Fame in 2005 — the third member of his family to make it, after his uncle Henry and his father, Tom Sr., went in as charter members in 1970. He made the 1953 Knoxville Journal All-East Tennessee football team at end, co-captained the 1953-54 basketball team to a District 11 championship and a state tournament berth, and took a football scholarship to Mississippi State before transferring to East Tennessee State, where he played end for three seasons. He graduated in 1958 and came straight to West Fannin as an assistant, alongside fellow Hall of Famer Raymond Montgomery. West Fannin basketball had been unremarkable for years. Foster took over the program in 1960-61 and fixed that in a single season: 21–9, runners-up in the Region 3AA tournament, and the school's first trip to the state tournament in Atlanta. The Yellow Jackets fell behind eventual champion Headland early, rallied behind senior co-captain T.J. Thompson, and lost 63–60. Afterward Foster told Charlie Roberts of the Atlanta Constitution, "we'll be back." He was. His teams went to state seven times — and lost those seven elimination games by a combined sixteen points. Four by three, two by one, one by five. They belonged there every time. Ask his players and his opponents why it worked and the same words keep coming up: discipline, organization, conditioning, dedication. Thirteen of his players went on to play college basketball. He wasn't rigid about it, either — his early teams played man-to-man and ran, and as his rosters changed he moved toward half-court offense and the 1-3-1 zone Ray Mears had made famous at Tennessee. His fellow coaches voted him region coach of the year several times over. He also coached the West Fannin football team in 1967 and took the girls basketball teams to winning records in 1965-66 and 1966-67, because that's what he was asked to do. He stepped away from coaching after the 1973-74 season and moved into administration, closing out a 36-year career in Fannin County schools as a coach, teacher, and administrator. The gymnasium at Fannin County Middle School carries his name. One more thing his players noticed. Foster was spotted deep in conversation with a player named Wallace Pruitt at practice one day. Nobody knows what was said. What's known is that Coach Tom soon met Pruitt's sister Joyce and talked her into becoming Mrs. Tom Foster. They've been married more than fifty years. Joyce still calls him "my special guy." Tom and Joyce live in McCaysville. They travel, garden, and stay busy with their church — and Coach Tom has reportedly been spotted on a golf course once or twice.