The story of Valdosta's search for a new head football coach reached a conclusion when the school board voted Tuesday to hire former Colquitt County coach Rush Propst to replace Alan Rodemaker, whose firing was the most controversial of the current offseason.
Propst spent 11 seasons at Colquitt County, compiling a record of 119-35 and winning state championships in the highest classification with undefeated teams in 2014 in 2015.
Colquitt County fired Propst last spring after an investigation led by the superintendent alleged that Propst had lost control of the team, interfered with the hiring of a principal, administered medication to athletes and owed more than $400,000 in income taxes. Propst mostly denied the charges. He spent the past season as a volunteer assistant at Alabama-Birmingham.
Propst came to fame as the head coach at Hoover High in Birmingham, where his teams won five state titles and were featured in the MTV reality series “Two-A-Days.” His career record is 295-96.
“This will be the first time I’ve gone into a job where they’re winning now,” Propst said, according to Todd Holcomb’s reporting for the AJC earlier this week. “Is it the level they want? Maybe not, but they’re only four years from a state championship, and they were in the quarterfinals last year. They expect state championships, and that’s OK. I’m fine with that.”
In January, the Valdosta school board voted 5-4 to fire Rodemaker despite the team’s 10-3 finish in 2019 and a 36-17 overall record in four seasons. In 2016, Rodemaker led the Wildcats to their first state championship in 18 years.
Rodemaker’s wife later filed a lawsuit on his behalf, claiming the vote was racially motivated. The five board members who voted against Rodemaker are African-American. Rodemaker is white. Those five voted Tuesday to hire Propst, who is white.
Propst will be one of at least six new head coaches at Class AAAAAA schools this season. Here are the other coaching changes that have been reported:
*Centennial hired North Atlanta head coach Sean O'Sullivan to replace Shane Sams, who is now the offensive coordinator at Northside-Warner Robins. O'Sullivan, who was 12-9 in two seasons at North Atlanta, was formerly an assistant coach at Pope, Westminster, Southeastern Louisiana, Delta State and alma mater Mars Hill College. Centennial was 0-10 in Sams' only season after suffering key graduation losses from a team that was a region runner-up in 2018.
*Central Gwinnett, which will drop one classification into AAAAAA this fall, hired South Paulding head coach Jason Thompson to replace Todd Wofford. Thompson previously was defensive coordinator at North Gwinnett (2012-2016) and an assistant at Central Gwinnett (2009-2011). Thompson was 11-11 in two seasons at South Paulding, turning the team around from 2-8 in 2018 to 9-3 last year. Wofford, who joined the Collins Hill staff, was 46-61 in 10 seasons at Central.
*North Atlanta has an opening after it was announced on Tuesday that head coach Sean O'Sullivan was leaving to take the job at Centennial. O'Sullivan went 12-9 in two seasons, and his 2019 team posted the third winning record (7-4) in the program's 29-year history and reached the state playoffs for just the second time, first since 1996. North Atlanta finished third in nine-team Region 7-AAAAAA last season but will move this year into Region 4, which will have seven teams.
*Northside-Warner Robins promoted offensive coordinator Chad Alligood to replace Kevin Kinsler, who retired. Kinsler went 100-28 in 10 seasons at Northside, winning four region titles and the 2014 state championship. Alligood had two earlier stops as a Northside assistant, from 1999 to 2004 and again from 2010 to 2016. He was 10-12 as head coach at Washington-Wilkes in 2017 and 2018. Northside was 3-7 last season and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1991.
*South Paulding promoted defensive coordinator Jason Nash to replace Jason Thompson, who took the head coaching job at Central Gwinnett. Nash has spent one year at South Paulding after previous stints as an assistant at Grayson, Colquitt County, South Forsyth, Walnut Grove, Worth County and Elbert County. This will be his first job as a head coach. South Paulding went 9-3 in 2019 and reached the second round of the playoffs after going 5-25 the previous three years.
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