Johnny Farmer coached the Fannin County High School girls team from 1981-2007. During his time at the school, the Lady Rebels won a total of 509 games, won two state championships and finished as state runners-up on two occasions. The 1996-97 Fannin County High School girls team advanced to the Class AA championship game before losing to Thomasville. In recognition of their dramatic journey to the final game, the 1996-97 Fannin County Lady Rebels team has been chosen as the team selection in the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame induction class of 2018.

As the Fannin girls gathered for practice in the fall of 1996, the outlook for the coming season loomed as a big question mark. The previous year’s team had posted an all-time team best record of 28-1 and had advanced to the state tournament final 4 before tasting defeat for the first and only time. Five seniors from that team graduated including four starting players. The lone returnee, however, was the sensational Ashley Herendon who competed as a junior for the 1996-97 team. As the season unfolded, the starting lineup for the Lady Rebels generally included three sophomores and two juniors. Only one senior, Leigh Muse, was on hand to provide leadership for the young group.

From the get-go the 1996-97 season was a roller coaster ride for the Fannin girls and their supporters. Probably based more on past accomplishments more than current prospects, the Lady Rebels were ranked # 6 in the preseason poll published by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The young ladies started strong winning their first 8 games including a heart-stopping 46-45 decision over the also unbeaten Pickens County team in a game played in Jasper. Ashley Herendon’s free throw with 13 seconds remaining provided the victory margin.

Another of the high points of the season occurred a few days later when the Lady Rebels defeated Stockbridge in the first round of the Taco Bell Christmas Tournament at Blue Ridge. The victory was the 300^th career win for Coach Farmer. One of the low points of the season came the following night as the Lady Rebels lost their first game of the season, 46-47 to Murphy NC, a team that the Lady Rebels had defeated earlier in the season. The team rebounded and on the eve of the last regular season game on Friday, February 14, with a record of 18-3 were favored to win the regular season Region 7AA championship, needing only a victory over Forsyth Central the following evening to wrap up the crown.

Tragic news awaited the Lady Rebels and the entire student body at Fannin County High School, however, on Friday morning when word came that former Lady Rebel standout and a member of the 1995-96 team, Sabrina Gibson, had died in an automobile in Cleveland, Tennessee. After completing her eligibility at Fannin, Sabrina had continued her career at Cleveland State Community College. Suddenly basketball championships seemed insignificant as the young people of the school were forced to cope with the death of one of their own. The Lady Rebels proceeded with the final regular season game that evening in an atmosphere of grief tempered somewhat by the resiliency of youth in a time of crisis.

The Fannin girls defeated Forsyth Central and entered the Region 7AA tournament as the number one seed. They defeated White County in the semi-finals and then were blown out by Pickens County in their most lackluster performance of the year in the Region Championship game. Both the champion and runner up advanced to the State Tournament, however, so the Lady Rebels had some more hoops to play.

The real on-court drama began when the Lady Rebels squared off against East Hall in the first round game. Down by 17 points at one point in the third quarter, the Fannin girls stormed back, tied the game in regulation and won in overtime, 50-49, on a buzzer beating field goal by sophomore Stacy Parris. After the East Hall victory Stacy could have uttered the old vaudeville phrase “you ain’t seen nothing yet” because her post-season heroics were far from over. In the quarterfinal match against Dade County Stacy calmly sank a free throw with 15 seconds remaining to propel the Lady Rebels to another one-point victory, 41-40.

The trifecta of one-point victories came in the semi-final game against Hancock Central in another overtime thriller. With no time remaining on the clock, Stacy Parris again drilled a free throw to give the Fannin girls a 60-59 victory and a spot in the title game against powerful Thomasville. The magic finally ran out in that game and the Lady Rebels left Macon with a runner up trophy and an overall record of 23 victories and 5 defeats.

The 1996-97 Fannin County girls basketball team had many heroes. Junior Ashley Herendon and sophomore Stacy Parris were outstanding all season and both young ladies have been inducted into the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame. Point guard and queen of the behind the back dribble, Roxie Reed, was a rock in guiding the team. Post players Leah Nelson, Tina Grice and Jodie Thomas controlled the ‘paint’ and backboards like guards at Ft. Knox. Leigh Muse, the only senior on the team, provided leadership and lots of help at one of the wing positions. Strong supporting help came from back-up point guards Tara Dillinger and Amanda Newton, inside or ‘post’ players Kelly Queen, Cheri Shinpaugh, Carrie Dills and Cindy Williams along with ‘wings’ Kristy Galloway and Rachael Nicholson. Assisting Johnny Farmer with the coaching duties was Eddie Payne.

After the season, Ashley Herendon became the first basketball player in Fannin County High School history to be named first team All-State when she was so honored by the Atlanta Tipoff Club. Seven of the sophomores on the team, Stacy Parris, Tina Grice, Leah Nelson, Roxie Reed, Cindy Williams, Amanda Newton and Rachael Nicholson would go on to be the heart of the 1998-99 team that won a State Championship. And, kudos should also go to Fannin High teacher and current assistant principal T.C. Dillard who was honored as the team’s Top Fan for her indefatigable support.

2018 Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame inductee Stephanie Scearce began her competitive basketball career as a second grader and did not hang up her sneakers until a knee injury permanently sidelined her just before her senior season at Kennesaw State University. It was her third serious knee injury in a career full of a lot of euphoric highs and a few devastating lows.

Stephanie enjoyed her first taste of glory as a member of the Georgia Class C Parks and Recreation Department State Championship 9 and 10 year old team in 1997. She was tall and talented and full of both trepidation and enthusiasm when she reported to Coach Johnny Farmer to begin her career at Fannin County High School in the late fall of 2000. She won a starting job as a low post (inside) player beginning with her very first game as a freshman. 

Coach Farmer says that Stephanie was one of the hardest working players that he coached. And he adds that her hard work was focused. She was continually working at improving specific parts of her game — working on a new offensive move, ball handling skills, free throw shooting, boxing out for rebound position and other disciplines — with no wasted energy. She always reported for practice immediately after her final class and worked hard until it was time to go home. She also devoted countless hours to a weightlifting regimen to improve her strength. As a low post player she generally battled the biggest and strongest player for the opposition and strength was a necessity to effectively compete.

Stephanie set a number of goals, both individual and team, for her basketball career and by the time she finished her sophomore season at Fannin High she was well on her way to accomplishing those goals. On an individual level, her goal of being a first-team All-State selection was realized when the Atlanta Tip-Off Club and Atlanta Journal and Constitution named her to the GHSA Class AAA All-State First Team of the Year. She was also selected as the Lady Rebels Best Offensive Player. Dozens of letters from college recruiters arrived at the Scearce house and Stephanie was considered as a top Division 1 College prospect. She had developed a strong relationship with the coaching staff at SEC power Auburn, however, and was making preliminary plans to spend her college days at the ‘loveliest village on the plains’ in Auburn, Alabama.

One of Stephanie’s team goals was to win a State Championship and the 2001-2002 team came very close, advancing to the state semi-finals before losing. After the season, Coach Farmer says that he had high hopes that the returning squad for the 2002-2003 season would have a very realistic shot at bringing home a third State Championship to Blue Ridge. The team would be led by junior Stephanie Scearce and two other members of the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame, junior Alden Acker and senior Mandy Anderson.

The 2002-2003 season had barely begun when the unthinkable happened. As Stephanie was driving to the basket in a Christmas Tournament game at Towns County she felt a ‘pop’ in her right knee. The injury was diagnosed as a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear and Stephanie was done for the season. She had surgery a short while later.

The injury was so serious that several of the teams that had been recruiting Stephanie, including Auburn, backed away. She went through an intensive rehabilitation program, however, and came back for her senior season in 2003-2004 at or near 100% of her physical skills prior to the injury. Despite the injury she remained on the recruiting lists of numerous colleges. Her senior season would become one to remember in Fannin County High School basketball history.

After a sluggish start, the 2003-2004 Fannin girls developed into a force to be reckoned with, finished with an overall record of 25-8 and advanced all the way to the Class AAA State Championship game before losing to arch-rival Gainesville. Stephanie averaged 17.3 points and 8.9 rebounds per game and was named as the Lady Rebels Most Valuable Player. The Georgia sports writers named her to the Class AAA All-State second team in recognition of her great season. Even missing most of her junior season and the first few games of her senior season, Stephanie Scearce scored 1,375 points during her career at Fannin County High School making her the third leading career scorer in school history. She was only 28 points shy of reaching the #1 spot. She was second in school history in career rebounds with 799. She graduated with honors and was ranked 26 academically in the 2004 graduating class. She was a member of the National Honor Society for three years.

Stephanie decided to continue her basketball career at Kennesaw State University, a school that was in the midst of moving up from Division II to Division I status for athletic competition. She had an auspicious debut with the Owls, scoring 18 points and gathering 13 rebounds in her first game against Southern Polytechnic. She went on to have a solid freshman year playing in all 30 games and finishing the year averaging 9 points and 6 rebounds per game. She had an individual game high of 24 points in a game against West Georgia.

Prior to the beginning of her sophomore season of 2005-2006, Stephanie found her career derailed again when she suffered another ACL tear, this time in her left knee. Another period of rehabilitation followed and she was healthy and ready to go when her junior season began in the fall of 2006. She was a major contributor to the Owls that season averaging 10.6 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. She led the team in rebounds with a total of 192. The injury demon appeared again before her senior season and she decided not to go through another round of rehabilitation and prepare for life without basketball.

Stephanie Scearce graduated from Kennesaw State University with a B.S. in Communications in 2008. An exceptionally bright, well-spoken young lady she landed a job as Executive Director with the Fannin County Development Authority in January of 2009 and remained in that position for nearly seven years. Her focus was in bringing new industry and jobs to Fannin County and in assisting existing businesses grow and develop. In October, 2015 she was offered and accepted a position as Northwest Georgia Project Manager with the Georgia Department of Economic Development. She makes her home in Woodstock, Georgia.

Throughout her career, Stephanie Scearce has been fortunate to have a strong support group led by her mother and father, Mike and Yevette Scearce. Mike is a banker and Yevette has been a 4^th grade teacher at East Fannin Elementary School for more than 20 years. Stephanie gives Mike and Yevette much of the credit for her development as a basketball player, student and the sharp and sophisticated businesswoman that she is today

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2018 Fannin County Sports Inductee Mandy Anderson scored more than 1,000 points during her basketball career at Fannin County High School between 1999 and her graduation in the spring of 2003. She then continued her basketball career at Reinhardt University in Waleska, Georgia where she scored 1,138 points in a four year career with the Lady Eagles making her the only basketball player in the history of Fannin County to score more than 1,000 points at both the high school and college level.
When Mandy began her basketball career at Fannin High in the autumn of 1999, the Lady Rebels were coming off a State Championship season. The 1998-99 State Champs were a senior-dominated team so Mandy entered the program at the beginning of a ‘rebuilding’ process. Mandy made the varsity squad as a freshman and went on to start for the Lady Rebels for her final three years at Blue Ridge. On a team level, her high school career crested in 2002 when her team reached the semi-finals of the Class AAA State Tournament.

At Fannin High, Mandy played softball and participated in track and field, in addition to her primary sport of basketball. She played third base and shortstop for the Lady Rebels softball team while starting all four years. Her teams won Region Softball Championships in 2002 and 2003. In track and field she found that she had a natural ability to throw the discus. With very little coaching, she learned the techniques for that event and won two Region Championships and was the runner up the other two years. She had a third and a fourth place finish in the discus in the state meet during her high school career.

Basketball, however was Mandy’s first love and primary sport. She was very, very good at the sport and decided fairly early on that basketball would likely be her ticket to earning a college degree. She worked hard and was rewarded by being named to the Atlanta Tip-Off Club Class AAA All-State second team as a junior and again as a senior. She was named as her team’s MVP as a senior. She never missed a day of school in 12 years and graduated with honors in the top 10% of the 2003 Fannin County High School graduating class.

Mandy was an undersized post player (inside player) in high school and the college recruiters did not beat a path to her door. Coach Johnny Farmer helped arrange a try-out at Reinhardt University and Mandy was offered a partial scholarship. Rookie Coach TJ Rosene brought in nine freshmen in the recruiting class of 2003 and dangled the carrot of a possible full scholarship to a select few ladies who could make the grade. He took the group along with a few other possible recruits to Hilton Head in the summer of 2003. The girls lived and practiced together for a week. Mandy knew that her college future depended upon her performance in this mini ‘boot camp’ and that she put forth the very best effort that she could manage during that week. She was rewarded when, at the end of the camp, Coach Rosene rewarded her with a full basketball scholarship.

Mandy played in 124 games at Reinhardt during her four year career. She saw a lot of playing time as a freshman and started her last three years. Her best season was in 2005-06 when she averaged 14.5 points per game for the Lady Eagles.

Mandy Anderson is an exceptionally bright young woman who has built a career from learning from every situation that has come her way in athletics. In high school, she says that she learned the meaning of intensity and will to win from mentor Johnny Farmer. She learned a great deal about the Xs and Os of the game from assistant Eddie Payne. She also credits Coach Payne for helping to instill much of her love for coaching. During her first two seasons at Reinhardt, she learned a great deal about advanced theories of the game including a working knowledge of the ‘Read and React’ Offense. After her second season at Reinhardt, however, she also learned that, basketball is a business. It was at that point that TJ Rosene, her coach, mentor and, in many respects, role model, moved from the women’s program to accept the position as head coach of the men’s team. For Resene, it was a sound move career-wise and he has gone on to great success as the head coach at NCAA Division 2 powerhouse Emmanuel College in Franklin Springs, Georgia. Losing her head coach was difficult for Mandy, but she understood his reasons and learned from the experience.

Upon graduation from Reinhardt, armed with a Magna Cum Laude degree in Health and Physical Education, she began her career in teaching and coaching. She was soon offered an assistant coach position at Reinhardt and remained there for three years. She moved on to River Ridge High School for two seasons and then to Sequoyah High in Cherokee County where she was an assistant girls basketball coach for five seasons.

Mandy found that she preferred coaching at the high school level because there a coach was required to work with the material provided through the natural progression through the school system — or as Mandy phrases it “you play the hand that you are dealt”. At the college level, a coach was required to recruit players that hopefully would fit into his/her philosophy of the game. At the high school level, a coach worked with the players that came up through the school system and adapted a style of play to the talents of the players on hand. She remembers that Eddie Payne had voiced this philosophy during her days at Fannin County but did not fully grasp its meaning until she faced the same situation as a coach.

After five years at Sequoyah, in the spring of 2017, Mandy Anderson found herself at a crossroads in her career. She was becoming increasingly involved in the sport of CrossFit, both as a participant and as an instructor, and found that the time requirements of that endeavor coupled with the time required to fulfill her coaching duties were almost too much to fit into a 24-hour day. Fortuitously, a contact from her Reinhardt days approached her with the opportunity to become a basketball official with the GHSA. She decided to pursue that course, resigned at Sequoyah and is presently working toward becoming a basketball official at the middle and high school level for the upcoming 2017-18 hoops season. It is a male-dominated profession, but Mandy has the knowledge, confidence and general aura of ‘don’t mess with me, I know what I’m doing’ to be a success at this new opportunity in her young life.

Mandy lives in Woodstock, Georgia but visits her parents and two younger sisters in Fannin County often. Her mother was her first coach when Mandy was 7 years old and her sisters, Tasha and Stephanie, followed in her footsteps as outstanding basketball players at Fannin County High School. In fact the two younger ‘Anderson sisters’ both were good enough to play college basketball, Tasha at Brenau in Gainesville and Stephanie at Cleveland State. Tasha is currently the girls basketball coach at Fannin County Middle School.

Barely past 30 years of age, Mandy Anderson has already experienced quite a journey in athletics. In many ways, however, her journey has just begun.

Men or women like John Mercer Carter only come along once or twice in a generation. Mr. Carter was a man of extraordinary character, vision and energy who devoted much of his 102 years on earth to education, athletics and public service in and around Fannin County. In recognition of his many accomplishments and contributions to athletics, both as a participant and as a coach and administrator, John Carter has been elected to the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2018.John was born in the community of Cobbs, North Carolina, close to the Georgia border in September, 1886. His father J.M. Carter was an educator and evangelist of some note who moved the family to Mineral Bluff and then to a farm near Morganton, Georgia before John reached the age of 10. J.M. Carter was one of the principals in the establishment of the North Georgia Baptist College in Morganton, a school that provided a quality education to students between grade one through two years of college. It was here that John Carter received his rudimentary education before moving on to the University of Georgia to complete the requirements to teach in schools at that time. He began his teaching career at a one room school in Hemp, Georgia in 1908.John Carter discovered the game of baseball around the turn of the century. In his book ‘Trails of the Past’, Carter tells of visits to his grandparents in Bellvue, North Carolina after his family had moved to Morganton. Another young man, Ty Cobb, who was two months younger than John, also visited his grandparents in the same community around that same time. The two boys played together as youngsters and, most likely faced each other in baseball games during the early years of the century. John had begun his career with the team from North Georgia Baptist College and Ty was often drafted to play with the semi-pro team in nearby Murphy, North Carolina while visiting in Bellevue. Cobb began his professional career when he signed with the Augusta, Georgia team in April, 1904, just as John Carter was completing his high school education.

Baseball was without question America’s National Pastime from the early years of the 20^th century into the 1950s and John Carter played the game with a passion. He was generally a catcher and, due to his playing ability, grasp of the finer points of the game and natural leadership qualities, usually found himself in the role of coach or manager of the teams for which he played. He played for some of the better semi-professional teams of North Georgia, Western North Carolina and Southeastern Tennessee for more than 50 years. In addition to Cobb, John Carter competed with and against some of the finest athletes of the day during his career including Hall of Famer Johnny Mize, future New York Yankees pitcher Spud Chandler, Cy Grant of University of Georgia fame, Joe Jenkins, a teammate at Morganton and member of the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame, as well as local legends such as Tiny Swafford, Harry McNally and the Tipton Brothers.

 Carter states in his memoirs that he was offered several opportunities to pursue a professional baseball career. He was not inclined, however, to embark on a life of travel and professional uncertainty, preferring to remain with family and in his beloved teaching profession. Financially, a life in professional baseball during Carter’s playing days did not offer the huge benefits available to players today. In an era of fierce competition among strong local semi-professional teams, he was often recruited to play for teams in crucial games for the unheard of sums of $50-$100 per game. Added to his remuneration from his teaching jons, he felt that his financial condition was probably favorable to a life in professional baseball.

 Although he enjoyed an outstanding baseball career as a player, John Mercer Carter’s contributions as a coach, educator and administrator left a much more permanent on the landscape of athletics in and around Fannin County.

Beginning in the fall of 1908 Carter taught in the schools of Fannin County until the autumn of 1917, with two interruptions. During this period, he was a teacher and coach at North Georgia Baptist College for two years and also served as a teacher and coach at North Georgia College in Dahlonega for one year.

 In the fall of 1917, Carter was brought to Copperhill High School as a teacher and to modernize the athletic program at the school. At that time Copperhill High School served roughly equal numbers of students from Tennessee and from the nearby town of McCaysville, Georgia and its environs. The only other high school opportunities for students in Fannin County at the time were at the Epworth Seminary, a high school at Mineral Bluff (until 1925), the North Georgia Baptist College in Morganton (which became a public school in 1926) or the Mary Willingham School for Girls in Blue Ridge. All were a considerable distance from Copperhill/McCaysville and were difficult to reach considering the primitive transportation conditions at the time. So the logical alternative for local Georgia students was to pay a tuition fee and attend school at Copperhill High School.

 When Carter arrived at Copperhill, the school’s basketball teams played on an outdoor court and the school did not have a football program at all. Two of John Carter’s chief contributions at the school were the building of a modern basketball facility in 1923 and the establishment of a football program in the fall of 1925. After taking the position as coach and teacher (he later was elevated to the position of principal) he quickly recognized the need for a community club-type facility to provide for recreation, including competitive basketball, for the young men and women of the area. He organized a community club, including a facility for basketball competition, in an existing building shortly after his arrival. When local civic and business leaders recognized the positive impact of the endeavor, funds were raised from the citizenry and the Tennessee Copper Company to build a new facility that was called the Copperhill YMCA. The gymnasium at the Copperhill YMCA served as the venue for Copperhill and McCaysville High School and elementary school games until the 1950s.

 Establishing a football program was no small endeavor in but Carter, along with another visionary teacher at Copperhill, B. Fred German, accomplished that task in the fall of 1925. German coached the first football team and Carter continued to coach the basketball teams. He continued in that role until he left Copperhill at the close of the 1928-29 school year.

 The 1929-30 school year found John Carter as the head baseball and basketball coach at North Georgia College in Dahlonega.

 After a few years as coach and school principal in the Asheville, North Carolina area John Carter returned to Fannin County as the principal and coach at Fannin County High School in Morganton. The school had made the transition from North Georgia Baptist College to a public school in 1926 and much of the physical plant needed a major overhaul. The gymnasium, for example, also housed the Morganton Elementary School. Under the direction of John Carter the facilities were modernized and by the 1934-35 school year Fannin County High School boasted a gymnasium which according to Carter “would seat about 1800 people comfortably and was considered to be the best lighted gym between Atlanta and Knoxville”.

 Carter’s greatest coup at Fannin County High School was persuading the decision-making powers in Georgia District 9 athletic circles to hold the District tournament for the Western Division schools at Morganton in the early spring of 1935. In an upset of monumental proportions, the Fannin girls rose to the occasion and defeated Duluth, Hiawassee (Towns County) and perennial power Jasper (Pickens County) to win the Western Division championship. They then journeyed over to Clarkesville and defeated the Eastern Division champions to capture the overall Georgia District 9 girls basketball championship. Georgia did not hold a girls basketball state tournament at that time so the Fannin girls, under the leadership of John Carter, accomplished as much as was possible for them at the time.

 Following the 1934-35 school year John Mercer Carter had devoted most of his 50 years of service to education and athletics and his participation in athletics to Fannin County and its immediate environs. Opportunities came his way from the east in Buncombe County, North Carolina, however, so John Carter packed up his family and returned to Fairview High School near Asheville where he was hired as principal and coach. He devoted the next 23 years of his professional life to the Buncombe County School System as a teacher and coach until his retirement in 1958.

 John Mercer lived an additional 30 years after his retirement from teaching, coaching and playing the game of baseball. He remained in the Asheville, North Carolina area until his death in 1988. He stayed busy and found time to pen his memoirs ‘Trails of the Past’ in 1977. In the Introduction of this book an unnamed writer described the final 30 years of Carter’s life thusly: “Retirement for ‘Pop’ Carter was the start of new activities including farming, construction work and lecturing. Most importantly, he continues to teach each person he comes in contact with how to live better with themselves and with their fellow man”. A great tribute to a great man.