Carl Green’s breadth of experiences as a teacher, coach and administrator made him an ideal candidate for a groundbreaking position as Newton County’s first district athletic director.
The Newton County School System has a full-time athletic director for the first time in the district’s history, and the honor belongs to Carl Green. He hit the ground running in September, his role encompassing oversight for high school and middle school athletics in the county. It gives Green a chance to check off the most prominent item on his bucket list of professional goals.
“Number one, it’s a dream of mine to become a district athletic director,” Green said. “I’ve been a school AD for the last 18 years. I’ve won accolades at the highest [Georgia High School Association] classifications and been named an athletic director of the year.”
Green moved in from Sandy Creek High School in Tyrone, where he served as assistant principal and athletic director. He brings close to 20 years of high school AD experience to his district role. A Miami native who graduated from Creekside High School in Fairburn, Green enjoyed his first stint as an athletic director in 2009, when he helped start Hapeville Charter Schools. He remained there through 2017 and oversaw an upstart athletic department that quickly became a major player in the state, particularly in high school football. Hapeville Charter football coach Winston Gordon won four consecutive region championships from 2016 through 2019, as well as a Class AA state title during the last year of Green’s watch in 2017. Green then filled the athletic director position at Westlake High School in Atlanta, overseeing several region and state championship teams over the course of his six-year tenure. His breadth of experiences—including piloting new athletic departments at start-up schools—made him an ideal candidate in a groundbreaking role for Newton County.
“I’ve been to places like Hapeville Charter that are brand new and I’m the first [athletic director] they’ve had, and I’ve been to places where things are already set in place and established,” Green said. “I teach legal duties classes with the Georgia Athletic Directors Association. I’ve been to the national conferences and built connections there, and it just led me to say it was time for me to be a district AD.” When the opportunity opened in Newton County, it stoked immediate enthusiasm inside him. “It gives me the chance to truly make an impact and give school ADs a rubric to follow that can help their schools be the best they can be athletically,” Green said, “and with me being the first here, I can really have a hand in shaping how things happen.”
“Everything I do in this role really is all about the kids.”
Carl Green
Among his first orders of business: start creating the scaffolding around his blueprint for building the kind of district he believes Newton County can become for student-athletes.
“It’s about putting systems and processes in place,” Green said. “I’m really excited to make a mark there. At the school level as an AD, things are pretty much already in place, and the impact you can make beyond that is not that great. Here, I can give our ADs a roadmap to follow—system processes, a one-pager, so to speak, on how to create solid athletics departments across the district.”
A major part of Green’s plan involves shoring up the branding of athletic departments at local high schools. He envisions a more uniform approach that does not take away from each school’s creativity but at the same time provides athletic departments with an identifiable marker.
“I see some of our schools have branded themselves, and I want to make sure we’re doing even more of that because I really want us to be pubbing our kids,” Green said. “People know about Newton, but I don’t think people know enough about Newton. I want us to create a brand with our schools that when you come off the bus or when schools come to us to play, they’ll know it’s a Newton County school—regardless of whether you’re Eastside, Alcovy or Newton.” Green mentioned establishing “consistent” branding that “creates a standard of what it should look like to see a Newton County School coming. There are also visions I have where we’re maybe striking a school branding deal with particular dealers that make us stand out.”
While the chance to fill a first-of-its-kind position got Green’s blood pumping, his affinity for the outdoors—specifically hunting and fishing—allowed him to arrive on the scene with a built-in familiarity with Newton County’s terrain. Talk of the area’s rapid growth and expansion accelerated his excitement; and the E-SPLOST measure passed by voters in May, which approves funding to construct football stadiums at all three of the county’s high schools—with a tentative project completion date of February 2026—only sweetens the pot.
“That definitely makes it more attractive,” Green said. “I can be in the plan-making and decision-making processes for layouts of those stadiums and how the expansions and things we build can benefit our schools. The growth in Newton County is just phenomenal, and as a school-level AD who’s competed against Newton County schools before, I know things are already pretty good. Now I’m excited because our athletes will really get the best things that can be provided for them. Having everything we need for our school and district, like state-of-the-art facilities, is important. When our neighbor [schools] have it, we should be able to have it.”
Green wants to have a direct impact on the lives and futures of students.
“Twenty years ago, I was a school assistant and I had plans on going to law school, but that got derailed,” he said. “From there, I got into education [and] started coaching and teaching. I’ve probably done everything in a school building besides being a principal or custodian. I had humble beginnings, and my perseverance has gotten me here. That’s something I want to be able to instill in these kids. I have a story to tell to them for anyone who’s willing to listen.
“That’s one thing I’m going to miss about being an AD at the school level—interacting with the kids, being around them one on one,” Green added. “In this role, I still want to interact with them, whether it’s while stopping by one of our buildings to talk to a school AD or stopping by a game on a Friday night. Everything I do in this role really is all about the kids.”
Click here to read more stories by Gabriel Stovall.
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