Tommy Jones has enjoyed an exceptional 30 plus year career as a participant in and a coach of the sports of track and field and cross country. His many accomplishments have earned him a spot in the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame class of 2019.

As a junior high youngster at East Fannin, Tommy did not have a great deal of size but he did compete in basketball and football, while running on his own or for the Fannin Recreation Department track team. He says that he decided to become a coach during this period, in large part due to his respect for Jeff Quinton, his coach at East Fannin.

Tommy’s first taste of glory came in 1986 when he won the age 15 and under mile run event at  Georgia Recreation and Parks Association track meet. Tommy was a freshman at Fannin County High School which had neither a cross country nor track and field program at the time. So Tommy ran for the Fannin Recreation Department track team and picked up his first big championship.

A couple of significant events occurred as Tommy entered Fannin County High School for his sophomore season in the autumn of 1986. First, the powers that be at Fannin County High School decided to sponsor the school’s first track and field team, providing Tommy with an opportunity to compete and develop his running skills. Second, he met Bill Franklin, a member of the Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame and a special education teacher in the Fannin School System at that time. Bill was the first outstanding distance runner in the county at West Fannin High School. He went on to earn a track and field scholarship at the University of Georgia where his coach was the legendary Olympic champion, Spec Towns.

Billy became aware of Tommy’s running skills and Tommy says that he received his first meaningful coaching guidance with Bill Franklin as his mentor. Prior to meeting Franklin, Jones says that his strategy was simply to run a mile ‘as fast as I could’. Bill Franklin provided a more structured scientific regimen to preparation and actual race competition that resulted in a gradual and consistent improvement in Tommy’s race times. Bill became a part-time assistant on the Rebel track and field squad during Tommy’s 10^th and 11^th grade seasons. A new coaching regime arrived in 1988 and Bill was not retained as an assistant, but Tommy Jones had learned a great deal about running from him during those two years.  

Tommy Jones also played basketball at Fannin High and was a starter during his last two seasons. His game improved and peaked during the last half of his senior season. He was named as the team’s outstanding player for that period by the Northwest Georgia Tip-Off Club.

In track and field, Tommy competed primarily in the mile and 800 meter run events. During his three years of competition in the 800 meter event, he finished third at the Region 8AA event twice and won the Region championship as a senior. In the mile run, he finished 2^nd in the Region once and finished as high as 5^th in the state meet. Fannin County High sponsored a Cross Country team for the first time in 1988-89 and Tommy finished 8^th in the Region in that sport. He was named as the team MVP in Track and Field as a senior. He continues to hold school records in the 800 meters and mile run events.

After graduation from Fannin County High, Tommy Jones was awarded a Cross Country and Track and Field scholarship to Baptist College (now Charleston Southern University) in Charleston, South Carolina. He stayed there for two years and was named as captain of both the Cross Country and Track and Field teams during his second season. He was named as the Cross Country MVP as a sophomore. His accomplishments were many at Charleston but the highlights were winning the Southern Conference Championship and the South Carolina state championshi0p in the 3000 meters and being a member of the Southern Conference 4 x 400 Relay championship team.

Tommy loves the mountains of North Georgia and decided to transfer to North Georgia College as a junior. He also has strong ties to the school as both his father and grandfather studied there. So, in 1992, Tommy headed to Dahlonega where he was awarded the first Cross Country scholarship in the history of the school. North Georgia did not have a Track and Field team. He finished 11^th in the Conference Cross Country meet and was named to the NAIA All-Conference team in 1992. He was elected team captain in 1993. He graduated from North Georgia with a degree in Physical Education in 1993.

Tommy’s goal was to enter the coaching profession after college, but no opportunities in the North Georgia area were available immediately after his graduation. It took a while but he landed a job with the Gilmer County school system in 1999. Since that time he has held a number of teaching and coaching positions. He is currently the head coach of the Gilmer County High School Cross Country team, coach of the Clear Creek Middle School Track and Field team and teaches five class each day at Gilmer High.

Tommy continues to compete and has run hundreds of road races including the Peachtree Road Race more than ten times. His victories are too numerous to list but some include the Morganton Point Hill Run 5K eight times, Ellijay Run for the Son 5K ten times, the Sorghum Festival 5K in Blairsville and the Hot Biscuit 5K in Jasper. His proudest achievement was qualifying for and running in the Boston Marathon in 2014, the year after the bombing incident at that prestigious event.

Tommy and his wife Shelynda make their home in Ellijay, Georgia. They have three children, Tori age 21, Nick age 16 and Belle age 8.

Robert Kennedy said that “tragedy is a tool for the living to gain wisdom, not a guide by which to live”.  Suzianne Green Pass, a 2017 Fannin County Sports Hall of Fame electee, met tragedy face to face while she was in the second grade at McCaysville Elementary School. That year her dad battled cancer and she stayed with her grandparents, some weeks with her mother’s parents and others with her father’s parents. Her maternal grandparents, Jack and June Simonds, still had four daughters at home and all played basketball at Hiwassee Dam High School in neighboring North Carolina. When her younger sister, Glenda and she were with the Simonds family, they went to Hiwassee Dam basketball games. It was there that young Suzianne really started watching and loving the game of basketball. Out of the tragedy of losing her father, Suzianne was placed in a situation to become exposed to the sport that became and continues to be a huge part of her life.    

Suzianne began playing for a team at McCaysville Elementary in the second grade while her father was sick. He was never able to see her play so she used that fact as motivation to be the best that she could be for him. She played at McCaysville through the sixth grade. Her mother supported her participation in basketball and made sure that she attended every practice and every game. Suzianne says that her mother “made sure that she had everything she needed and that the honor of being elected to the FCSHOF is a representation of everything she has taught me — hard work and not giving up no matter how hard it gets”.

The high point of her early career came when she was chosen as a member of the sixth grade All-Star team. That team became the first team from Fannin County to win a State Championship of any type. She is quick to point out that Bernie Hodskins, Fannin County Recreation Department Director, provided for all of her team’s needs during that season.

After two years of junior high basketball at West Fannin, under the tutelage of Tammie Shinpaugh and Steve Phillips, Suzianne moved on to Fannin County High in the fall of 1990. She split time with the junior and varsity squads during her freshman year of 1990-91. She was named to the Gilmer County Junior Varsity Tournament all-tournament team that season.

Suzianne won a starting position for the Fannin County Lady Rebels as a sophomore and wasa standout performer for Johnny Farmer’s teams for the next three seasons. Her career at Fannin County was full of individual and team accomplishments. The top team accomplishment undoubtedly came during her junior season of 1992-93 when the Lady Rebels won the Class AA State Championship, the first high school state title in any sort in the history of Fannin County.

Suzianne was named as the Most Valuable Offensive player of that great team. As a senior in 1993-94she was the team’s leading scorer with a 19.5 points per game average and top rebounder averaging 11.3 rebounds per game. She scored 35 points in games against Murphy and Union County. She was selected as the Lady Rebel Most Valuable Player and received the ‘Chairman of the Boards’ award as the team leading rebounder.

Suzianne scored more than 1000 points during her high school career and was named to the Atlanta Tip-Off Club Class AA second team all-state squad as a senior. Her accomplishments were rewarded when she received a basketball scholarship play at Reinhardt Junior College in Waleska, Georgia. She earned two letters at Reinhardt, one in 1994-95 and another in 1995-96. She was team captain in 1995-96.After graduation from Reinhardt, Suzianne received another basketball scholarship from Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia. She earned two more letters there. She was named as the team Best Offensive Player as a junior and was team captain as a senior.  

After graduation from Piedmont, Suzianne returned to Fannin County as a teacher and also coached middle school cross country, high school softball, middle school basketball and JV basketball. She became the head coach of the Fannin County High School Lady Rebels basketball team in 2007, a position that she continues to hold at this time.

Suzianne is married to Blake Pass and the couple has a 6-year old daughter, Taber. Taber is named for Taber Spani, who was a standout basketball player for legendary coach Pat Summitt with the Tennessee Lady Vols.  Suzianne Pass considers Coach Summitt and Johnny Farmer to be her primary  coaching role models as she continues her career.