Former Valdosta and Colquitt County football Rush Propst is hospitalized in Birmingham with COVID-19 and pneumonia, Propst confirmed to AJC.com Thursday evening by text. He was admitted Wednesday.
“I hope I can beat this,’' Propst said by text. “Just not sure yet. Just asking for prayers and understanding. I love Georgia and miss it.’'
Propst’s wife, Stefnie, also released a statement through Jason Sciavicco, the director of the “Titletown High” reality show on Netflix that debuted in August and chronicles Valdosta’s 2020 football season with Propst as head coach.
“I am praying as hard as I ever have,’’ Stefnie Propst said in the statement. “Not being able to be by his side right now is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to endure in my life. Please continue to pray for my husband and I can’t wait to have him home soon.’’
Rush, 63, and Stefnie Propst and their three high school children moved to Piedmont, Ala., this summer.
Propst, perhaps the country’s best-known high school football coach, led Valdosta to the Class 6A semifinals last season but was fired last spring after the Georgia High School Association alleged recruiting violations.
Propst was coach at Colquitt County from 2008 to 2018 and led the Packers to state titles in 2014 and 2015.
An Alabama native, Propst became nationally known while leading Hoover High, outside of Birmingham, to five state titles. The MTV series “Two-a-Days,’' also produced by Sciavicco, followed one of Hoover’s seasons and made a celebrity of Propst as the hard-driving, no-nonsense Southern coach.
Propst came to Colquitt County in 2008 and quickly made a stalled program a state power. He survived cancer in 2011 after having a tumor moved from a tonsil.
Propst’s record in 31 seasons as a head coach is 295-108.
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