Propst Leaves Coosa Christian After 2.5 Months
Rush Propst’s return to Alabama seems to be just what the embattled coach needed to restore his name in the world of high school football. Propst, who has won state titles at programs in Alabama and Georgia, has been hired as the head football coach and athletic director at Pell City High School.
The hire comes just 2½ months after he was hired at Coosa Christian Academy in Gadsden. That ended a two-year hiatus from coaching high school football and marked his return to coaching since leaving Valdosta High School in 2020, after a controversy-filled one-year stay with the Wildcats.
Back on January 16, Propst joined me on Extra Point! With Phil Jones, the ITG Next podcast that’s dedicated mostly to high school football. During that show, Propst talked about why he decided to take the job at the small private school.
“Returning to coaching is something that has been pulling at me for quite sometime,” Propst said. “I went over in the fall and helped [football coach] Mark O’Bryant at practice, and got to know some of the folks there, so I felt it was a perfect match for me. It was something I wanted to do.”
At the time, Propst admitted that the Coosa Christian job was different than anything he had ever done. Still, he said, “Coaching football is coaching football.”
Early in the week of March 27, rumors began circulating that Propst might be interested in another head coaching job. When contacted by ITG Next late that Monday, Propst acknowledged the rumors were true, but he said he wasn’t in a position to disclose which school it was, only that it was in Alabama and it was at a “much bigger school” than Coosa Christian Academy.
Apparently, however, Propst was still struggling with the decision to leave Coosa Christian. On Wednesday, he told ITG Next that he “was still undecided.” One day later, on Thursday, March 30, as news of Propst’s potential move to Pell City began to grow, he again told us that the Pell City head coaching job was not a done deal: “Nothing is official. There has not been a vote yet. We are still working out details.”
Finally, on Friday, March 31, it became official: Propst would be leaving Coosa Christian Academy, after just over two months on the job, to take the head football coaching position at Pell City High.
Pell City School District superintendent Dr. James Martin told ITG Next that day that, “We are excited to have Coach Propst in Pell City. He brings a wealth of experience and understands what it takes to be successful. The optimism and excitement he exhibits is contagious. We are looking forward to great things for the Pell City community.”
Pell City Job May Be Propst’s Toughest Challenge Yet
Propst can coach. There’s no denying that. It’s likely the very reason why the Pell City administration felt that, despite all the controversy surrounding Propst, he was the guy they needed to get the football program back on track.
Last season the Panthers were 1-10 overall and 0-6 in region play. They finished 2-8 in 2021.
Propst’s new assignment may be the biggest challenge yet in a head coaching career that has spanned almost 35 year. But it’s not the first rebuilding job he’s faced. When Propst took over the Hoover Buccaneers in 1999, they had enjoyed moderate success previously, having won state titles in 1997 and 1982. But Propst took them to a whole new level, winning five state championships in seven title game appearances.
When he took over the Colquitt County football program in 2008, the Packers were, like Hoover, a solid program, but they had won only one state championship in program history, in 1994.
Once Propst got to Colquitt County, he implemented a nutrition and training program that built players into lean football machines. He led a community-wide effort to build a state-of-the-art indoor practice facility, one of the first in Georgia, as well as a new artificial turf surface on the stadium’s ground floor. He built the Pack into a state power, winning 30 consecutive games from 2014-2015, including two state championships.
Now, at Pell City, he takes over a football program that plays in the state’s tough 6A classification and has won just three games in two seasons. The Panthers have never won a state championship since the AHSAA began its playoff system. Their last region title came in 2003.
Pell City’s previous head coach was himself a legend. Steve Mack, winner of four state titles as head coach of the St. Paul’s Episcopal Saints, is in the Alabama High School Association’s Hall of Fame. In December of 2021, he too was sought out by Pell City to take over the struggling Panther program. In his only season there, he finished 1-10. He then resigned to return to Mobile and take over another class 6A school, Theodore.
While Propst is known as an offensive coach, his first order of business at Pell City will be to fix a defense that allowed an average of 45 points per game last season, including 50 or more points against half the teams on their schedule.
It would be crazy to bet against Propst. Let’s wait and see what happens.
