After an off-and-on half-century association with Decatur High School, Athletics Director Carter Wilson announced he’s retiring in July.
A 1972 graduate, he was Decatur’s assistant basketball coach from 1979-83, head coach from 1983-85 and again from 2000-2009, making back-to-back Final Four appearances in 2001 and 2002.
As AD from 2000 to the present, he was primarily responsible, along with former Superintendent Phyllis Edwards, for rebuilding one of the state’s oldest football facilities (the site dates to 1921) and construction of a 2,500-seat basketball arena.
Wilson, 62, said he isn’t yet ready to reveal his next step.
“I can tell you this,” he said, “I won’t just be going home. I’m not ready to start looking in the rear view mirror. There’s another mountain to climb and I’m excited for the next challenge.”
Wilson was on the national board of directors for the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association from 2014-16, and he’s been on the Georgia Athletic Directors Association board since 2003.
Wilson’s family has deep Decatur roots. His mother Elizabeth Wilson was the city’s first and to date only African-American mayor. His older brother, the late Richard Wilson, was the first black athlete to letter at Decatur High, in 1965. His wife Valarie Wilson, a former Decatur School Board chair, is executive director of the Georgia School Boards Association.
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