‘A blessing’ to the community, Carver coach on cusp of 150-win club
When Darren Myles finished his football career at Purdue in 1988, he returned to his hometown of New Orleans and took a job selling cars. The money wasn’t bad — some months were better than others — but there was a restlessness within him. On one particularly rainy day, Myles looked out the window of the showroom and realized he was called for a different purpose.
That led him to become a coach. The community at Carver High School in Atlanta has been forever changed by the decision.
Myles has been the head football coach at Carver High School for 21 years. And if the Tigers can defeat rival Washington on Thursday night at Lakewood Stadium, Myles will reach the 150-win milestone — something only three other coaches from Atlanta Public Schools have achieved.
And although the wins are important, Myles has made a lasting impact on molding the lives of the students who attend Carver, particularly the young men who play football there.
“His standard for us is to be well-rounded young men,” said Aquantis Brown, now a sophomore linebacker at Rice University. “It wasn’t just building talented football players, because coach Myles cared more about you becoming the man he was raising you to be.”
Myles coached three years in Louisiana and came to coach in Georgia because the money was significantly better. He hooked on at Douglass and Southside before landing his first head coaching position at Crim in 2003.
When Crim closed two years later, Myles became the head coach at Carver, in 2005. It was considered the toughest job in the city — the Tigers won only 17 games with eight winless seasons from 1988-2004 — with most of the students living well below the poverty line.
When Myles showed up the first day, he learned several harsh truths. The practice field had not been completed, meaning the team had to practice at Crim. There was a weight room — but it didn’t have any weights or weight machines. The funds from the weights had not been delivered as promised, so the players had to lift at Crim and use whatever equipment remained.
And the roster was very light. His first team meeting had three players — his son, Darren Myles Jr., another freshman and a kid who had been expelled the previous year.
By the time practice began, the roster had swelled to 15, then to 20 for the second week. There were 30 players on the team that first year.
Undeterred, Myles wrote down his aggressive goals. He wanted to establish his program’s culture the first year, produce a winning season in the second year, win a region championship in the third and draw national attention the fourth.
Carver was 3-6 in 2005; 7-3 in 2006; and 11-1 in 2007, winning the school’s first region title since 1986; and bringing national attention in 2008 thanks to the presence of talented college recruits, including Myles Jr., who went on to sign with Tennessee. The Tigers reached the state championship game in 2021, but Myles is still searching for that trophy.
“He does a tremendous job in the community,” said Georgia State coach Dell McGee, who has known Myles for 25 years. “He was in a situation — or is still in a situation — where he’s dealing with not the best situation. He really impacts that community and those players, and he’s done that for a long time.”
Myles did it by sticking to his guns and not cutting corners. If you didn’t come to practice, you weren’t going to play. If you showed up late, there were consequences. He established a level of accountability that is still in place today.
That first year there was a talented player who had a habit of skipping practice. The player also didn’t have a pair of football shoes. Myles gave the young man a set of cleats but demanded he turn them in at the end of each practice and reclaim them the next day. If he missed practice, someone else would get the shoes. The player never missed a practice — and kept his shoes.
The weight room eventually got finished thanks to a gift from Morehouse College, which was getting new equipment courtesy of Denzel Washington, whose son played for the Maroon Tigers. Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, who was working for the Atlanta Falcons, gave the team a platform for the weight room. Today, Carver has a large weight facility with the best equipment and plenty of room.
“You talk about restarting the program. Walking in with nothing, that was tough,” Myles said. “You don’t complain. You just work with what you have. Just had to figure out how to get it done.”
Myles accepts no excuses from his players. Grades must be maintained at all costs. Teachers, fellow students and women are considered worthy of the utmost respect. Answer authority figures by saying “Yes, sir” and “No, sir.” And take that hoodie off your head when you’re indoors.
“Yes, that’s a big one for coach Myles,” Clemmons said with a laugh.
Myles requires his players to dress a certain way. All members of the team wear a branded polo shirt and khaki pants to school on Monday. On Wednesday they’re required to wear a dress shirt and tie.
He said some of the boys have never owned a tie; Myles buys them from the thrift store or gets them donated by friends of the team, like former Atlanta Falcons lineman and current GPB broadcaster Wayne Grandy, who brings a bag full each time he visits the campus.
Myles has taught many players how to tie a tie for the first time. He recalled a big lineman’s reaction when he wore a tie for the first time.
“When I zipped it up and put the button up, he just couldn’t control himself. He had the biggest smile on his face,” Myles said. “Most kids try to be cool, but he couldn’t control himself. He was just smiling. He was so happy. That was a teachable moment.”
Such teachable moments have separated Myles from the typical high school football coach. And while he has received plenty of accolades — he was the Atlanta Falcons 2024 High School Coach of the Year and won a pair of tickets to the Super Bowl — his real reward comes from seeing his players succeed.
“There are so many life lessons we get just from being in his program,” Clemmons said. “Every person that’s crossed his path has learned some sort of life lesson from him, some sort of tidbit, maybe about persevering in life or your personal relationship or problems on the job or dealing with injuries. To be able to have that knowledge and convey it to all those different minds over the years is crazy, but he’s just great at relaying his experience to his players.”
Myles also asks local minister Michael Clinkscales from The Rock Church of Atlanta to speak to the team a couple of times each week. Clinkscales grew up nearby and has seen the impact Myles has made on the team and the community.
“Coach Myles tries to work on the total, complete kid — mind, body and spirt,” Clinkscales said. “His program brings some positive discipline to their lives and helps them with their grades. He’s a man that understands those young men and the people in that community. He’s been a blessing.”
And he’s about to join an exclusive group of city of Atlanta coaches.
Atlanta’s all-time winningest public school coach is L.C. Baker, who went 175-94-34 in 37 seasons at Washington. Baker’s teams won four state championships in the Georgia Interscholastic Association, the league in which Black schools competed before it merged with the GHSA in 1970.
The winningest APS coach in the GHSA era is Willie Jordan, who coached 29 seasons at Archer, Harper-Archer and Southside. Jordan’s teams went 169-133 and won the region championship in 1979 at Archer. Shorty Doyal, who coached at Boys High, went 168-53-22 in 22 seasons, from 1925-46.
Myles said reaching 150 wins will be meaningful, but his goal goes beyond that number.
“In the process you hope to win some championships,” he said. “And if not, you get a kid to graduate, and they’re totally different from when they came in as a ninth grader and when they graduate as a senior. You made progress, right? And then for them to come back 10 years later and they bring their son or their daughter and they say: ‘Coach, all the things I learned from you, I’m instilling in them. I want to thank you.’ Don’t get me wrong, I want to win, but those type of things are more important than the wins.”
About the Author
Stan Awtrey has been covering sports for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 1977. He currently writes about high school sports, Georgia State University athletics and golf.
