Rush Propst remains Pell City football coach after a heated school board meeting

As a special meeting was held before a packed house Wednesday morning, an agenda item for the Pell City School Board of Education to fire controversial football coach Rush Propst failed when no one on the board made a motion for a vote.

The agenda item called for not renewing Propst's contract and a contract for his wife, who works as a secretary for the school system.

No one on the board offered a motion to vote on the issue, so it died, leaving the contracts for the Propsts in effect.

“I'm just proud to be the head football coach at Pell City,” Propst told AL.com after the meeting, which he did not attend. Our work here is not done yet. There was clearly movement somewhere, but the powers that be saw fit to keep me as head coach.

A large crowd of supporters, including members of the Pell City football team, gathered at the board meeting to support Propst. A meeting was also held on Tuesday evening in support of the coach. When the motion to fire Propst died, the large crowd applauded.

“I think there's a lot of support for our football program and what we're trying to get done,” Propst said. There will always be biting back. You will have to fight through things, but the good thing is that there are better days ahead. I would like to thank the board for continuing to offer me this opportunity. I am happy to be a coach here. We have a lot of work to do. It won't turn around anytime soon. It will take some time. This thing was dead when I got here, and I'm excited to be moving in a positive direction.

Propst, who rose to fame by leading Hoover to national prominence, went 1-9 in his first season with Pell City. They forfeited a second win (24-16 over Center Point) due to an eligibility issue.

Neither board members nor Superintendent James Martin spoke to the media after the meeting. When asked if he thought the controversy surrounding the future of his job was over, Propst told AL.com: I think I'm doing well.

He also said he was grateful for the outpouring of support from the community and his football team.

It makes you feel great, he said. It makes you want to go to work. It feels a bit like you're starting over. I was so happy to see our football team there. I was in the fieldhouse talking to college coaches. I turned around and there were no players. They were all at the meeting.

I appreciate their support. There are many positive things coming our way. We still have some things to deal with, but every school has problems. You just have to navigate and keep doing what we came here to do, and that is building a proud program at Pell City.

Board members Norman Wilder and Greg Crump spoke at the meeting in support of Propst, and Wilder recommended asking for the superintendent's resignation instead of Propst. That also provoked great reactions from the audience.

Propst was officially hired at Pell City on March 31, 2023. He had returned to coaching at Alabama the previous January when he was hired as associate head coach at Class 1A Coosa Christian in Gadsden.

Before being hired at Coosa, Propst last coached at Alabama in 2007, when he led Hoover to a 6-6 record. He won five Class 6A titles with the Bucs, including four straight from 2002-2005. He went 110-16 in nine years as head coach at Hoover.

He won a pair of state titles in 11 years as head coach at Colquitt County, Georgia, and racked up another 119 wins. He also served as head coach at Ashville (1989-1992), Eufaula (1993-1996), Alba/Alma Bryant (1997-1998) and Valdosta, Georgia (2020).

“I feel very strongly that this may be the final chapter in my coaching career,” Propst said after being hired by Pell City.

He had been out of coaching for two years and watched his son play football at Piedmont before taking the job at Coosa and then Pell City.