Rebels bring home state title

Wrestlers win school’s first state championship since 1999

  • The Fannin County Rebels wrestling team won their first state championship as they topped Lovett in the state title match. The Rebels’ wrestling team are shown following the big win, which was the first male athletic team to win a state championship at Fannin County High School.
    The Fannin County Rebels wrestling team won their first state championship as they topped Lovett in the state title match. The Rebels’ wrestling team are shown following the big win, which was the first male athletic team to win a state championship at Fannin County High School.
  • Blake Summers celebrates after his match that crowned him state champion. Summers is the only freshman to win an individual state title in Fannin County High School history.
    Blake Summers celebrates after his match that crowned him state champion. Summers is the only freshman to win an individual state title in Fannin County High School history.

    The Fannin County Rebels wrestling team closed their season with the high school’s first state title since 1998, Thursday, February 11, in the GHSA Wrestling State Tournament in Macon, Georgia.

    The Rebels were able to fight and top a hard-nosed Lovett County wrestling team by 15 points to claim the state title. The Rebels wrestling team wrote history once again after they won their Area Championship Saturday, February 6, for the first time since 2005.

    This is the first male athletic team in any sport to win a state championship at the high school, and the first time Fannin has won a state title since the 1999 girls basketball team.

    Blake Summers also competed and won the individual state title. Summers is the first freshman to win an individual state championship in school history.

    All 14 wrestlers qualified for the state championship for the first time in school history as well.

    Rebels that placed in their respected division during the state championship are:

    •Summers, State Champion;

    •Kolton Stephens, fourth place;

    •Kainan Henson, third place;

    •Taylor Collis, fourth place;

    •Corbin Davenport, state runner-up;

    •McCay Turner, third place; and,

    •Matthew Crowder, fifth place.

    Head Wrestling Coach Chuck Patterson said, “This team has overcame so much adversity this season. As a coach it is amazing to sit back and watch parents, kids and whole families overcome with the emotions of being state champions! This unprecedented accomplishment is one that the entire community and entire school system should take immense pride in! These boys and girls wrestled with toughness, grit, and class all season long and it culminated in the biggest of payoffs! This community deserves this, and this team and program is honored and humbled to be able to bring home the first state title since 1999 to Fannin County!”