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“We've heard it for many, many years — people having to jump fences to play football at the high school after hours,” DiBiase said.

He also said the city should look into striping the fields. Citing an aerial view on Google Maps, DiBiase said there’s currently no indication that the city supports football.

When Mayor Bradberry asked what community, but it banded them together,” Craft said. “On the opening kickoff, one of Creekside’s players took it all the way to the 1-yard line, and they punched it in on the next play. It was the perfect tribute to Deuce, and I think it was just incredible to see that team come together and win a state championship.”

The Seminoles posted a 15-0 season, ending with the program’s first state championship — capped with a dominant 52-28 outing against Tucker.

That was the first football state championship Craft saw during his time in Fulton.

Most recently, Langston Hughes went 15-0 and finished the 2022 season as 6A state champions and the No. 15 high school football team in the country, per MaxPreps.

Asked about moments he’s most proud of and Craft was able to list off a champion-by-champion — the 202122 Tri-Cities’ boys basketball team taking over Macon Coliseum, Westlake girls basketball winning four-straight state championships before winning a national title, Milton girls lacrosse’s 18-year-long dynasty.

And as he was gleaming with pride seeing another program reach the pinnacle of high school football as the Langston Hughes Panthers won state, he was also proud of the support within the county.

“There’s seven other head coaches from around our county cheering on Langston Hughes,” Craft said. “If it wasn’t them, they wanted it to be someone from the county.”

Craft said its part of the culture now, unique to Fulton County.

“I think that’s what separates us from anywhere else is we have some great rivalries, but we’re going to support each other,” he said. “Our kids support each other, our coaches, ADs. It’s the secret sauce, whatever you want to call it.”

Support and working to help peers is something that became a staple in Craft’s repertoire. Jasper Jewell witnessed it first-hand.

Jewell, Director of Athletics for At - day 1 at Cauley Creek would look like for football, Johns Creek City Manager Ed Densmore cited a previous conversation that entailed forming an association for Cauley Creek and what field uses would be assigned.

Johns Creek maintains the city’s fields but uses park associations, like Ocee and Newtown, to manage its sports programs. To get a program up and running would take around six months, Johns Creek City Engineer Erica Madsen said.

Because the goals and field striping for Cauley Creek Park would be a “minimal” expense, Councilman Chris lanta Public Schools, has been friends with Craft since he took the job in Fulton County.

“A lot of our schools mirror each other in socioeconomic status, diversity and background, so it makes it an easy sell for us to mesh and work together,” Jewell said. “At the end of the day, we just want to be the best athletic directors we can for our student athletes.”

While they’ve known each other for a decade, their relationship — personally and professionally — got a boost in March 2019.

The two were at the annual Georgia Athletic Directors Association conference, sitting in seminars and going through training sessions to improve as athletic directors. One night, Jewell, Craft and several other ADs from around Metro Atlanta got together and formed the “Metro Mafia.” The group included ADs from Fulton County, City of Atlanta, Clayton County, Forsyth County, Paulding County and Gwinnett County.

“We all just formalized this group because we bounce so many ideas off of one another, whether it’s school closings, weather, issues, how we handle different issues in our district to see if it can be implemented in a neighboring district,” Jewell said. “We’re all so close to one another so we tend to lean on one another a lot. We talk a lot and develop things that we can take back to our superintendents that can make our districts better for the betterment of our kids and the betterment of teachers and coaches.”

One of the other group developments Craft was crucial in founding was the Aspiring AD Cohort in Fulton County.

With open athletic director positions at several high schools, Craft sifted through resumes and realized how many qualified candidates came from within the district. So, Craft and other ADs and administrators founded the cohort to help train coaches, teachers and prospective athletic directors in Fulton County.

“It used to be: sit behind a desk and figure it out,” he said. “Now we have a training program that can be replicated

Coughlin said it should not be a council decision.

But park associations own their own sports equipment, Johns Creek Public Works Director Chris Haggard said. He proposed the city could buy the sports equipment, and an association repay the city through their $25,000 standard contribution.

“I just want, between RPAC and staff, to come up with a plan that is most flexible to encourage all participation,” Bradberry said.

In other action at the work session, Johns Creek City Clerk Allison Tarpley recommended that each councilmem - and shared with other districts,” Craft said.

The initiative has essentially created a labor pool to fill positions with a sense of continuity and consistency, he said. Today, six of the 16 ADs have come from the cohort.

“I think Fulton County has become a state perennial power when you look at school systems in athletics,” said former Johns Creek AD Jason Holcombe, who is set to become the Gwinnett County Public Schools Athletic Director in April. “That all starts with what Steven started 11 years ago. He made me a better athletic director, a better coach and a better mentor.”

It was late on a Wednesday night, maybe early Thursday morning, in late May 2017, but Craft picked up the phone.

Holcombe was down in Lee County where his Johns Creek baseball team had just suffered a heartbreaking 5-3 loss in Game 2 of the GHSA state semifinal series, ending their season. The loss was extra painful because they thought they had won the game. The Gladiators won on a walk-off run, but after further review the umpire reversed the call, the game went to extra innings, and the Trojans won.

“(I) called Dr. Craft and told him that it wasn’t right, and we needed to do something,” Holcombe said. “We explained everything, he saw everything, and he was right there. We took it to GHSA, they agreed with us and the original decision was upheld so we got the opportunity to play a Game 3.”

The Game 3 was played the following week, and Johns Creek lost, but Holcombe said that the players were grateful for Craft’s involvement, allowing them a fair opportunity to extend their season.

Doing what’s right for students has always been at the center of Craft’s mission and his work. No one expects that to change.

“To say that Fulton County is losing a giant is an understatement,” Jewell said. “He’s a man of high character, a great leader and I can’t say enough about him.” ber select two to three residents to act as watchdogs in this year’s municipal elections run by Fulton County. Feedback from those residents would then be used to inform a communitywide survey, she said. In a second phase, Tarpley recommended moving to the election task force that will study plans for the city to run its own municipal elections in 2025.

The City Council asked that a council-led elections task force be seated sooner rather than later and recommended that a consultant be hired as a first step in the process to help the group navigate elections.