Gail Eppley took a shot at basketball in high school. Now 86, she’s still got game
You can spot Gail Eppley on any basketball court, but you can’t miss her on this one.
It’s frozen in time.
Seating is limited to worn maple grandstands. The paint on the gray brick walls has seen better days. The court has been waxed a few times and a 3-point line has been added, but it’s still nearly indistinguishable from its 1940s self.
Past the boys playing pickup and kids running drills, Eppley shoots on a goal closest to the bleachers. A man jogs over to her, explaining that he’s a basketball trainer. He’s impressed by her.
“You shoot better than the kids I teach,” he says.
He writes her email down. He’s only watched her for five minutes, but he wants her to speak to the kids he trains. He snaps a picture with her before she leaves.
Eppley grew up in this small gym in Cramerton. She played there in high school, some 70 years ago, when girls’ basketball was played under a 6-on-6 format, with three players on each end of the court..
She’s about 5-foot-3 and the only woman on the court. She’s 86 but plays like she’s 43 and trains like she’s 20. She sports a cropped gray haircut that sits above her ears, and possesses a mid-range shot that goes in more often than not.
Last month, Eppley was given the Humana Game Changer award, which recognizes inspiring senior athletes. Later this month, she’s traveling to the National Senior Games in Des Moines, Iowa.
She fell in love with basketball here on this court, but now the sport is doing more for her than she could have imagined. She says it’s keeping her young. The hardwood floor reminds her to seize every day, and she encourages others to do the same.
“You can’t sit back,” Eppley said. “You got to get involved.”
The town that built her
Cramerton was a mill town.
Stuart W. Cramer — the town’s namesake — wanted Cramerton to be the ideal place with every comfort imaginable. That’s why Cramer gifted the town a recreation center around the early 1940s, fitted with a gymnasium and pool and located right next to Cramerton School, which housed kids from first to 12th grade.
It gave the town something to do. It was slow-moving, simple times, except on Tuesdays and Thursdays when people would file into the gym for Cramerton’s games, Eppley said.
“It’s always been special, just the people,” she said. “It’s the ideal place you want your children to grow up, and we grew up in it.”
Eppley spent her childhood everywhere but inside the house. She always played outside, especially in the yard. Following in the footsteps of her nine older siblings, Eppley first picked up a basketball when she was 7.
She didn’t start playing in the Cramerton gym until the 1950s. By the time Eppley reached seventh grade, her older sister played on the varsity.
There was no junior high squad, or anywhere for Eppley to play competitively, so she started practicing with the older team.
“Of course, my sister didn’t like that much,” Eppley said.
She was ready to play full-time on the team by the ninth grade.
It was 6-on-6 basketball, but play was limited to half of the court. Players couldn’t pass the half court line and were allowed to dribble twice before they had to pass or shoot. Positions were confined to guard and forward, and offense and defense.
But Eppley loved the movement. The competitiveness. She’s strategic. She’s assertive and anticipates. She spots opportunity and takes it.
Eppley said she once scored 57 points in a single game.
After she graduated, Eppley went to High Point College. The school didn’t have an official women’s basketball team, but there was one that was locally sponsored.
She played three games a week all four years. They traveled and competed against other schools.
The team played full-court basketball, unlike high school. Eppley embraced the transition. She played the rover position, which allowed to move across the entire court. She loved it. She said one of her teammates held a record for hitting 100 consecutive free throws.
“We did quite well,” Eppley said.
Following college, Eppley decided to stay around the sport — only this time as a coach.
From player to coach
Eppley started coaching basketball and softball in 1982 at Harding High School in Charlotte.
She took a break after college to start a family after marrying Richard Eppley, in 1959. The pair have been together since the ninth grade, and have four children.
Eppley coached three of her kids, Chrys, Renee and Suzette. Although she didn’t officially coach her son, Mike, their afternoons were spent playing ball. There was a basketball goal in Eppley’s backyard, and all four children would compete.
But that was the only time during basketball Eppley was “mom” to the girls. On the court at school, she became Coach Eppley.
“They were always very respectful,” Eppley said. “They always said I was rougher on them than anybody else. I said, ‘Well, I made you better by doing that.’”
She never yelled or raised her voice, even during a time when that was typical. She knew what to say and when to say it.
Her second-oldest daughter, Renee, thinks her mom has a fixation and drive that not many people have. The type of drive that almost seems gifted rather than crafted. She can just make things happen.
And she had that drive when she coached.
When Eppley led teams, she wanted them to be the best players they could be, but she also wanted to give them the best experience possible.
One time, Coach Eppley gave everyone on the team new basketball shoes except for Renee. The daughter was afraid to ask why. She pouted for three days. Finally, she found the courage to say something.
“Coach Eppley, everybody else got their shoes,” Renee asked. “Why didn’t I get them?”
Eppley didn’t want anyone to have a barrier to playing, especially at a high level. Some players couldn’t afford shoes, and she didn’t want anyone to have to borrow them. So, without telling anyone or using school funds, she bought the whole team new shoes.
“That was just a watershed moment of her philanthropy,” Renee said. “And how she cares about supporting the sport and other people.”
Returning to the court
Eppley didn’t play competitively again until 30 years ago.
Two of her friends were the first women to compete in Charlotte’s senior games. They called Eppley. She hasn’t stopped since.
Eppley routinely plays in the statewide senior games, featuring 3-on-3 teams. Nationals occur every two years, and she’s been seven or eight times.
When she goes to nationals, Eppley turns it into a girls’ trip; Her three daughters will join her.
“Some people go to music festivals,” Renee said. “We go to the Senior Olympic Games.”
It’s become a family tradition. Her children will make sure she stays hydrated and comfortable, but more than anything, they have fun.
In recent years Eppley has been sidelined with two knee replacements, a hip replacement and an ankle injury. In 2021, she contracted COVID-19 and was hospitalized for 12 days.
Her oldest daughter, Chrys, took her to the hospital. Family wasn’t allowed to see her. Eppley couldn’t hold up her Bible, so she asked Chrys to bring her small devotional pamphlets so she could still read scripture.
“We thought she was going to die,” Chrys said.
Eppley pushed herself to get back to the court. She started walking with Chrys, and then began practicing once again. She still becomes short of breath sometimes from it, but she would never tell anyone. Eppley questioned her return, but she always met those questions in her mind with an answer.
“I will be back” — she says it’s in her blood.
Recently, her two longtime teammates stopped playing. They all go eat together and remain a basketball family. Still, she was left without a team to go to nationals.
Eventually, one of Eppley’s friends told her about a senior squad in Hickory, called the Red Foxes. Eppley didn’t know anyone on the team except the friend who told her about it. On one random Saturday morning, she drove an hour to see them.
When she went into the gym, over 50 senior women were playing basketball, ranging from 50 and older. She felt surrounded. She became a part of them.
“It was like I walked into a new family,” Eppley said.
Once a coach, always a coach
She’s been playing with them ever since. Eppley goes to practice every Saturday.
After joining the Red Foxes, Eppley met Gail Engle. She had never played basketball before, bu wanted to try something new.
One day, she came out to watch the Red Foxes at the Tom Sykes Recreation Center, still in her business clothes and high heels. She watched Eppley and about 10 others play. She was all-in.
But she didn’t know that came with the challenge of guarding Eppley. Week after week, Eppley beat Engle off the dribble and scored. Engle was frustrated.
Finally, she summoned the courage.
“Hey, Gail. How come you can beat me?”
She told Engle she was guarding her too closely. All Eppley had to do was take one step around her.
“That really changed me personally, and it helped me because I really didn’t know basketball skills,” Engle said. “And week after week, she would help me, and she encouraged me. She kept telling me I could be able to play.”
Eppley caught the eye of Roberta Maddox, captain of the Red Foxes, in 2024, after recovering from a hip and knee replacement.
Maddox immediately noticed that Eppley was a great mid-range shooter and passer, especially the no-look pass. She also noticed her character; Eppley was an influencer.
“You enjoy her personality,” Maddox said. “You enjoy sitting and chatting with her. But if you didn’t know her, you would see from her behavior that she’s very motivated, she’s very active and she wants to continue to be active.”
Eppley made everyone around her better. Last year, Eppley and Maddox worked their way to the state finals. The two remaining teams sat tied going into the last few minutes.
Maddox was assigned to the tallest player. She’s only 5-4, but she was the tallest they had. Maddox remembers being guarded by the taller player. Eventually, she had to take a step back. She looked to Eppley, who gave her a signal.
Eppley pointed up. She gave her the go-ahead and that’s all the confidence Maddox needed.
She let it fly. The ball went in. They earned the gold medal, and Eppley was the first to hug her.
“It really made me feel good,” Maddox said. “She was watching to know that I could make that shot, and I made it. It won the game for us.”
Eppley never stopped playing, but she never stopped coaching either.
“I believe that what really motivates Gail is that she wants to encourage and lift up other women at whatever age to keep going.”
‘You have to put yourself out there’
Eppley practices on her own in Charlotte on Monday and plays pickleball three times a week. Then, it’s Saturday with the Red Foxes. She also spends some time recruiting in grocery stores.
The Red Foxes don’t send a team to nationals, so she put her name in a database and is going with a team from Virginia. She has never met or played with them before. Their first practice together will be in Iowa.
It’s about making the effort to keep moving. Eppley believes in a popular saying: You don’t stop playing when you grow old. You grow old when you stop playing.
“It means more because I can see (what happens) if I don’t stay active,” Eppley said. “I can see some friends that haven’t. I want to be there. I have 13 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, and I have a husband that’s very supportive, and I want to be there for them. Basketball has given me a chance to compete, to feel worthy.””
Eppley believes life is too short to worry about winning or losing.
It’s about stepping outside of your comfort zone, even if that’s as simple as walking in the garden, or playing bridge.
“I think you have to put yourself out there,” Eppley said. “Nobody’s gonna come knocking on your door and say, come on out and play anymore. If you want to get involved, you’ve got to put yourself out there.”
It’s about taking advantage of the moment. Why wait?
This story was originally published July 10, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
