Rush Propst

Ralph Clyde "Shorty" Propst, who was born in 1924 and played for the Alabama Crimson Tide, is his uncle.

Thomas Rush Propst (born December 1957) is a high school football coach who is currently head coach at Pell City High School.

He formerly served as athletic director and associate football coach at Coosa Christian School in Gadsden, Alabama.

He is also the former head coach at Colquitt County High School in Moultrie, Georgia, Hoover High School in Hoover, Alabama, and Valdosta High School in Valdosta, Georgia.

Propst, who is of German descent, is a native of Ohatchee, Alabama where he graduated from Ohatchee High School in 1976.

Propst played high school football for Coach Ragan Clark, whose son Bill was later the head coach at Prattville High School, a Hoover rival, for many years.

Ohatchee was 27–5–1 in Propst's three years as a starter at wide receiver and defensive back, with Propst earning All-County recognition as a senior.

In addition to football, he was a two-year starter on the basketball team and even though Ohatchee did not have a track program, he checked out of school one afternoon and won the District 100-yard dash his senior year.

Propst attended college at Jacksonville State University (JSU) where he was a non-scholarship member of the JSU football team in 1976–1977.

Propst took his first coaching position as a student assistant at Ohatchee in 1977, the year they won their only state championship.

His brother, Philip was a star on that team.

He also served as an assistant coach for eight years at Cleburne County High School in Heflin, Alabama, Cherokee High School in Canton, Georgia, and Ashville High School in Ashville, Alabama.

He graduated from Jacksonville State in 1981 with a degree in Physical Education.

Propst was eventually promoted to head football coach at Ashville High, serving from 1989 to 1993.

In 1990, he married Tammy Cox, his high school sweetheart, with whom he had three children.

He then moved on to Eufaula High School in Eufaula, Alabama from 1994–1996 before being hired by Alba High School in Bayou La Batre, Alabama in 1997.

In 1998, Propst coached Alma Bryant High School, the school that resulted from Alba's merger with the high school in Grand Bay, Alabama.

At Alma Bryant he amassed a 12–2 record.

He was hired at Hoover in 1999, where he coached for nine years, winning 110 games and five state championships.

Propst's Hoover team was one of the top-ranked teams in the United States over much of the first decade of the new millennium, winning Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 6A state championships in five of the first six seasons including four consecutive titles from 2002 to 2005 (missing out on 6 straight after losses in the championship game to Daphne in 2001 and Prattville in 2006).

During Propst's tenure, Hoover was repeatedly ranked in the nation's top-25 polls, finishing as the #16 team in the nation in 2003, #4 in the nation in 2004, #8 in the nation in 2005, and ranked #1 entering the 2006 season by Sports Illustrated, USA Today and the National Prep Football Poll.

Propst's base salary at Hoover was $100,678.

Propst gained national notoriety through the MTV series Two-A-Days, which chronicled the 2005 and 2006 seasons of his Hoover team.

He has helped over 250 players receive college scholarships, including players such as Chad Jackson (Florida), John Parker Wilson (Alabama), Ryan Pugh (Auburn) and Cornelius Williams (Troy).

In just his second year of coaching at Colquitt County, Propst took a team that had finished 2–8 in 2007 to an 11–3 season and the state semifinals in 2009.

But in June 2007, the criticism became more vocal and more formal when HHS athletic director Jerry Browning, Propst's immediate superior, resigned over numerous differences between himself and principal Richard Bishop, who was a teammate of Propst on the football team at Jacksonville State University.

Propst divorced Tammy in 2008 and married his current wife, Stefnie, with whom he has four children.

On January 30, 2008, Propst was named head coach at Colquitt County High School.

When Les Koenning left the University of South Alabama in January 2009, head coach Joey Jones interviewed Propst to fill the vacant position as the offensive coordinator.

After community uproar over the interview, Propst decided to stay at Colquitt County.

In 2010, he led Colquitt County to the GHSA Class 5A State Championship Game.

In 2011, Colquitt finished 11–3 after losing 35–31 to the eventual state champions, Grayson High School, in the state semifinal game.

In 2012, Colquitt finished 10–4 after losing 41–27 to the eventual state champions, Norcross High School, in the state semifinal game.

In 2013, Colquitt finished 11–3 after losing 14–9 to the eventual state champions, Norcross High School, in the state semifinal game.

In 2014, Rush Propst led his Colquitt County Packer football team to their second undefeated season (15–0) and a second state title (first one came in 1994), by defeating Archer High School 28–24 on December 13, 2014, to claim the 2014 1-AAAAAA State Championship and his first state title within Georgia.

In 2015, Colquitt County completed another 15–0 season with a 30–13 victory over the Roswell Hornets to claim their second consecutive Georgia AAAAAA State Championship.

Propst was relieved of coaching duties following the 2018 season.

He spent a year as a volunteer assistant coach at UAB.

During his tenure at Hoover, Propst was a frequent target of critics.

At the conclusion of the 2020 season, his 31–year head coaching record stood at 307–96 (.762 win percentage).