When asked to summarize his life and career, legendary Alabama football coach Bear Bryant said “I ain’t nothing but a winner”. Although 2020 Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame inductee Shannon Dillinger York is too unassuming to describe her life and career thusly, the words attributed to Bryant could easily describe her.
For the skeptics in the audience, consider these accomplishments in Shannon’s life to date. In 1990, she was selected as ‘Miss East Fannin’ at East Fannin Middle School. In 1993, she was elected as Homecoming Queen at Fannin County High School. In 1994, she was elected as the ‘Best All-Around’ senior girl at Fannin County High School and in 1997 she was elected Homecoming Queen at Piedmont College.
Shannon was an honor student at both Fannin County High School and Piedmont College She was the recipient of the Governor’s Honor Award at Fannin High and was awarded a Presidential Academic Scholarship at Piedmont. She earned a B.S. Degree in Psychology and Spanish from Piedmont in 1998 and a Master of Education Degree in Health and Physical Education from North Georgia College and State University in 2003. She also earned a degree as a Specialist in Educational Administration from Lincoln Memorial University. She taught Spanish, special education and physical education for 8 years and was named the Fannin County Teacher of the Year in 2012. She also served as Assistant Principal at Blue Ridge and Fannin Middle Schools for 8 years.
Shannon has a rich alto/baritone singing voice and, in 2011, won the ‘Mountain Idol’ talent competition This achievement led to a number of opportunities to perform at various venues and events throughout North Georgia. She recalls that, before winning the Idol competition, all of her public singing had been in church. News of her talent reached Georgia State Speaker of the House David Ralston who bestowed on Shannon the huge honor of recruiting her to sing the National Anthem on the closing day of the State House of Representatives session in 2018.
Involvement in athletics began for Shannon with the East Side Youth basketball team when she was 6 years old. She played for the East Fannin Middle School Wildcats for a couple of years before beginning her high school career at Fannin County High School in the fall of 1990.
At Fannin County High School, Shannon York became the starting point guard for the Lady Rebels basketball team at the beginning of her sophomore season in 1991. She excelled in that role for three seasons. She was the floor leader on offense, a tenacious defender and a veritable ‘coach on the floor’. She played the game with gusto and at a relentless pace. She led the Lady Rebels to the Georgia Class AA State Championship in 1992-93, the first state title in the history of Fannin County at the high school level. As a senior in 1993-94 she was the recipient of the Best Defensive Player Award and the Most Unselfish Award.
Shannon lettered two seasons in cross country at Fannin High. She finished 6th out of more than 70 runners in the Region 8AA cross country meet and qualified to compete in the state meet, the first Fannin County High runner to do so.
Following high school, Shannon was awarded a basketball and academic scholarship to attend Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia. She was the starting point guard at Piedmont all four years that she competed there. She was named to the conference all-freshman team in 1994-95. She was awarded the Bush/Harris Memorial Scholarship in 1995-96 and in 1997-98. She was elected team captain at Piedmont and earned the Coaches Award as a senior in 1998. Shannon became the all-time career assist leader in Piedmont women’s basketball history during her junior season.
While attending Piedmont, Shannon met her future husband, Richard York. Richard is something of a legend himself at Piedmont and was elected to the Piedmont Athletic Hall of Fame in 2007 in recognition of his exploits in basketball and golf at the school. Shannon and Richard were married in the summer of 2001. The union has produced two children, Reagan, age 15, and Hudson, age 12. Reagan plays basketball and volleyball at Fannin County High School and Hudson, a student at Fannin Middle School, is into basketball, golf and baseball.
Shannon and Richard are intimately involved in the activities of their children. Shannon also stays busy a Chairperson of the Leadership Program of the Fannin County Chamber of Commerce, her music projects and overseeing the professional care of her mother, who is struggling with health issues. She also helps out and supports Richard in his career with WoodmenLife, an Omaha-based life insurance and financial planning company. The company has some 1200 employees and Richard, an over-achiever cut from the same fabric as his spouse, was named as the firm’s top performer of the year in 2018.
Shannon York gives much of the credit for her successes to her parents, Debbie and Junior Dillinger. Junior was her basketball coach from the day she began competing until she reached the 7th grade. She and her sister Tara learned the fundamentals of basketball from Junior and were ready to play the game when they reported for duty with Coach Johnny Farmer and his Fannin County High School Lady Rebels. Shannon also cites Coach Farmer for his role in developing her athletic skills to the championship level.
In a testimonial to Shannon’s character in her high school yearbook, her parents expressed the thought that she ‘always had her life in order’. She is truly ‘nothing but a winner’.
