Lovejoy has hired a familiar face to return and lead its football team into 2026.
Jabari Wilder, who served as Lovejoy’s offensive coordinator in 2021 and 2022, returns to the program after a three-year stint at McEachern, where he coached offensive line and served as assistant head coach.
“This is a moment that has probably been kind of brewing in me since my first stint in 2021 with Lovejoy,” Wilder told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’ve always admired the people there, so it still feels surreal.”
Wilder said he still knows a lot of teachers and staff members at Lovejoy, including his mother, who has kept in touch with plenty of his former co-workers.
“They’ve actually been fans of McEachern while I’ve been there, and that’s just something unique,” Wilder said. “I’ve been at different places, and I’ve just never had many people that supported me beyond me being at Lovejoy.”
Wilder’s first stint with Lovejoy wasn’t particularly long, but it was effective. The Wildcat offense averaged 32 points per game in 2022, the program’s highest average since its last region championship season in 2013.
Wilder will take over for longtime coach Edgar Carson, who led the team for 12 seasons. The Wildcats made the playoffs 11 times under Carson, who stepped down from his position in January.
“The decision was strictly a family decision,” Carson said. “I just want to be able to spend a little more time with my nine-year-old. I want to be able to see (my son Caleb Carson) play ball at Stanford.
“I know I did a lot to help a lot of kids, but Lovejoy is a special place. If you cut me open right now, I think I’d bleed blue.”
In fact, every Lovejoy coach in program history has led the team for at least a decade. Wilder will be the program’s fourth head coach when it opens its 36th season.
That longevity is one of the factors that brought Wilder back to Lovejoy.
“For the past four or five years, if I had a dollar for how many times people asked me when I was going to go after a head coaching job, I’d probably be a millionaire,” Wilder said. “I was purposefully waiting for a place like this and a job like this to open up, and I didn’t know what it would be, but I knew I wanted to be somewhere where I could be home.”
Wilder isn’t a Lovejoy alumnus, but he’ll have plenty of former Wildcats on his coaching staff. Former standout center Randy Robinson and former standout defensive backs Jermaine Hough and Rico McWilliams will all coach for Wilder. Longtime Lovejoy coach Derek Smith will also coach receivers for Wilder.
A Luella alumnus, Wilder shared the importance of starting his tenure at Lovejoy with several former Wildcats around him.
“It just shows the kids that I’m bringing people around that care about Lovejoy more than they care about themselves,” Wilder said. “When you sit and talk to those guys about the Columbia blue and what the power cat means on their helmet, these guys, they value it to the utmost.
“A lot of these guys would do this for free.”
Wilder played college football at Carson-Newman and Georgia Southern. He’s also coached at Luella, Salem and Griffin.
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