Oftentimes great athletes seem more eager to talk about the feats of teammates or family member than to talk about themselves. Such is the case with 2020 Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame inductee April Sisson Conti. And with good reason. April’s son, Evan Cole, is an up and coming basketball star for the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Evan stands 6’ 9” and is entering his junior year of eligibility with m the Jackets. He recently led his team to four victories on a preseason tour of Spain where they met several top international teams.
April began her own basketball odyssey at the age of five and did not hang up her sneakers until the end of the 1989-90 season at Fannin County High School. She earned four varsity letters playing basketball for the Lady Rebels under the tutelage of legendary Coach Johnny Farmer. April averaged 9 points per game as a junior and 13 points per contest as a senior. She was named as the Northwest Georgia Tip-Off Club Player of the Month in January 1990 and also was awarded the team Glenn Wilkes Hustle Award that season. Her teams at Fannin won region titles and advanced to the state playoffs during her junior and senior seasons.
While competing at a basketball camp at UT-Chattanooga, April impressed one of the coaches of the Tennessee Magic AAU team and was invited to play with that team during the summer between her junior and senior years in high school. She accepted and played with the Magic in games throughout the South,
Fannin County High School sponsored the first track and field team in the history of the school in the spring of the 1986-87 school year. April Conti was a freshman at the school at that time and suddenly was afforded the opportunity to display her wide range of athletic skills. April was not a one-dimensional athlete. She was well-coordinated, fast, quick, strong and possessed superb leaping ability. The multi-faceted sport of track and field was a natural for April and she competed in a variety of disciplines including the sprint events, middle distance events, relay events, the long jump and the high jump.
She excelled at the high jump and placed fourth in that event at the region track meet as a freshman. She continued to improve as a high jumper and won the Region 8AA championship in the event two times during her career. She finished sixth in the high jump at the state meet at the end of her senior year of competition in 1990. Her coach, Mike Durham, had these words to say about her performance: “Any time you get to the victory stand, you have done a good job because this means that you are one of the six best at your event out of the 16 that started in the state championship”. Overall, she earned three varsity letters in track and field (she did not compete in track and field during her junior year) and was named as the Most Valuable Player in that sport during her sophomore season.
It was in the sport of softball, however, that April Conti produced her most prodigious numbers. She earned four varsity letters in softball, starting in the outfield her last three years. During her stay at Fannin, her teams won four sub-region championships, two region championships and placed in the Elite 8 in state class AA rankings in 1988 and 1989. As a senior in 1990, April posted an incredible batting average of .625 while smacking 18 home runs and recording 75 RBIs. Following her senior season, she was selected to represent Region 8AA on the Georgia Athletic Coaches Association North All-Star Team and participated in the North-South All-Star Game held in Augusta in June of 1990.
April Conti was much more than just a stellar athlete during her years at Fannin County High School. She was an exceptional student academically earning a spot on the Principal’s List and/or Honor Roll every grading period while in high school. She was a member of the Beta Club, the Student Council and the Annual Staff. She was elected Student Council President for one year. She was the runner-up in the Homecoming Queen selection as a senior and was elected as the Best All-Around Senior Girl student by her peers during her senior year. She graduated from Fannin County High School with an impressive resume of academic and athletic accomplishments in the spring of 1990.
April was recruited by several colleges to play several different sports an elected to attend Georgia State University in Atlanta on a softball scholarship. She played there for one season but discovered that, at that point in her life, her passion for the nursing profession was more powerful than her passion to continue her athletic career. She transferred from Georgia State to Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia where she earned her degree in nursing.
April’s career choice was Perinatal-Care Nursing and she became a Registered Nurse in that field. She has enjoyed a 20 plus year career with Northside Hospital, serving as the Nursing Director of the Labor and Delivery Operating Room at Northside/Forsyth Hospital for eight years. She currently works with the Georgia Perinatal Consultants at Northside/Atlanta Hospital specializing in high-risk pregnancies.
April married Salvatore Conti in 2014. Sal is the Director of Information Services with Equifax in Atlanta. April and Sal reside in a condominium in midtown Atlanta. When not watching Evan play basketball for Georgia Tech or enjoying the myriad of entertainment and dining opportunities available in Georgia’s Capital City, the Contis travel extensively and their mode of transportation is generally by motorcycle. On a recent vacation they traveled coast to coast seeing much of the USA from the backs of their motorcycles.
