Class 6A Blog: Hall of Famer Quincy Carter to lead Heritage-Conyers into new-look region

Georgia’s highest classification has been front and center during the offseason’s coaching carousel and the wave of changes that has started since December. Among the new coaches is a familiar name in Quincy Carter—a Georgia High School Football Hall of Famer—who has accepted the head coaching job at Heritage-Conyers.

The Patriots are coming off a disappointing 1-9 finish in 2025 and finished 0-6 in Region 4-6A. Next football season, Heritage-Conyers will remain in Class 6A—one class below the new highest—and will have Alcovy, Chamblee, Decatur, Dunwoody, Lakeside-DeKalb, Meadowcreek, Midtown and Shiloh as its region opponents. This is a dramatically different region from the past two years that situated Heritage with Archer, Grayson, Grovetown, Newton, Rockdale County and South Gwinnett. As a result, All of Heritage-Conyers’ eight region opponents next football season will be different than the last two seasons.

Coach Carter spent this last fall serving as the team’s offensive coordinator and is taking a position as a paraprofessional at the school. Heritage fielded dozens of interviews and had interest from around the southeast, but athletic director Dorian Powell told the Rockdale Newton Citizen that Carter stood out as the best fit and saw it play out during this past season.

“We knew we wanted to fill the position permanently with someone who could sustain the program and we brought Coach Carter in as the OC but as the season progressed, we knew he would be the guy,” said Powell Harris. “He believes in the mission and he has provided for our program this past season as offensive coordinator, and now he’s moving into the role as head coach.

“His vision aligns directly with the vision of myself and our principal Joshua Patton. Coach Carter is big about mentorship and being academically strong. He knows that’s important to us, like player development.”

Caleb Shaw stepped up as the interim head coach last year following Rodney Cofield’s departure to B.E.S.T. Academy before the season and made the move from his position as football operations coordinator and assistant athletic director.

Heritage has not had a winning season since 2017 (when the team went 7-5) and has not qualified for the postseason since 2019. Carter is the sixth head football coach at Heritage since 2020 and is the 15th in the school’s 50-year history.

“We are already on the ground, moving in the right direction,” said Powell Harris. “When we had discussions with Coach Carter about serving as our head football coach, we wanted to make sure we got started as early as we could to start building the program we know we have.

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