Coahulla Creek tabs offensive coordinator, Northwest grad Carter as new football coach

Jan. 5—Coahulla Creek High School is staying in-house — and local — to find the Colts' next head football coach.

Drew Carter, Coahulla Creek's offensive coordinator for the past four seasons and a Northwest Whitfield graduate, was named the Colts' head coach on Thursday.

"It's been a goal of mine to be a head coach," Carter said. "I'm looking forward to the challenge."

"Coach Carter has served as the offensive coordinator for the last four seasons and played a huge role in the success we enjoyed this past season," stated an announcement by athletics director Chris Woods and the school. "We have the utmost confidence in his ability to continue the progress and positive direction of our football program."

The Colts were left looking for a new coach after that success of the 2022 season, which was the best in school history.

Coahulla Creek had a winning record, finishing 7-4, and reached the playoffs for the first time in 2022. Danny Wilson, the head coach for three seasons, resigned in December. Wilson was an in-house hire when he came over from his defensive coordinator position in 2020.

Now Carter, the architect of the offense that helped lead the Colts to that unprecedented success, gets a chance to continue what Wilson started.

"We've kind of raised the expectation bar around here, and our kids understand what it takes to be successful," Carter said. "Now we have to get to that level of consistency that we want to be at."

The passing offense propelled the Colts last season. Senior quarterback Kace Kinnamon, who is Carter's cousin, led Class 3A in passing yards statewide.

When Wilson surprised the staff with his resignation last month, Carter became one of the candidates considered by Woods and principal Tracy Mardis.

"It was kind of a whirlwind and a shock that day," Carter said. " I talked to Mr. Mardis that day and told him I would be interested in the job."

Earlier this week, Carter was offered the job, and he officially accepted Wednesday afternoon.

Carter is a former quarterback, having starred at Northwest Whitfield before his 2007 graduation. Carter was a four-year starter at quarterback at LaGrange College.

Carter then began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at LaGrange. Since then, Carter has been the wide receivers coach at Villa Rica High School, running backs and receivers coach at Elbert County, offensive coordinator at Central-Carrollton and quarterbacks coach at Pepperell.

Carter joined the Colts' staff in 2019.

Carter said he's excited to be a high school coach in the Whitfield County he grew up in.

"I think it means a lot to me, but it means a lot to the community too," Carter said. "To have a familiar face in the job is helpful. But also the fact that it's somewhere that I have such fond memories of growing up around here and playing high school football here, and I want to help provide that to the kids now."