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An Alabama LegendInstant Success: Hoover High School\'s Rush Propst© More from this issue If you seek success akin to that of Hoover (Ala.) High School’s Rush Propst, there’s a simple formula you can follow: • Start from the bottom and work your way up – paying attention to detail not salary. • Make plenty of friends in the business, and stay in touch – frequently. • Understand your limitations. • Always make time for your family and your players. • Keep working hard, or as Propst would say, “Always have a sense of urgency.” • Always seek to learn and innovate. • Make the game fun so your kids will want to practice and play, and fans will want to watch. OK, so the formula isn’t so simple, but Rush Propst doesn’t believe in doing things halfway. And Probst’s dedication, determination and intelligence have helped lead Hoover to four 6A title games and three state titles in the last four seasons. Propst came into his current job with a one-point agenda. He took over Hoover’s then-losing program on Jan. 11, 1999. The next day, he said his goal was to win the 2000 state title. Propst told his team: “We are going to shoot for the stars.” He was true to his word. After a 7-3 effort in 1999, Propst’s 2000 edition of the Buccaneers went 14-1 and beat Daphne, 28-7, for the 6A title. In the last four seasons, Propst’s Buccaneers have gone 55-4 with one postseason blemish – a loss to Daphne in the 2001 state title game. A QUICK BOOST Propst initially took a dual role as athletic director and football coach. He stepped aside as A.D. after six months, but not before making one move that changed the face of Hoover athletics. “Rush hired a consultant to come in and look at the booster club,” said Ron Swann, Hoover’s athletic director. “The consultant suggested that the club break up into individual sports.” Propst followed the consultant’s advice, creating independent clubs for 12 sports. Annual fundraising revenues zoomed immediately from $75,000 to around $250,000. Today, Hoover’s booster clubs bring in nearly $1 million a year. Propst says the football booster club alone has 450-500 members and contributes $350,000 a year to the team. In addition to helping in fundraising, Swann says Propst’s creation of a “zero period” has helped Hoover teams become more competitive. The zero period begins at 6:30 a.m. for Propst’s senior players. They conduct stretching and weight training before eating breakfast and heading to class. Swann says this allows players to spend the class day recovering so they are fresh for afternoon practice. Hoover’s other coaches have quickly adopted this idea. “In the last four years, we’ve won 27 state championships,” Swann says. “I think we won 25 championships in the first 30 years here. There’s no doubt that the key figure in that success is Rush Propst.” A WORK ETHIC AND TALENTED HELP Propst looks for one thing in assistants: “I’ve got more weaknesses than strengths, and I try to hire people who are strong in areas where I’m not.” Ron Ingram of the Birmingham News says two of Propst’s strengths are dedication and an ability to teach. “There’s no one who outworks him,” Ingram says. “He’s amazing to watch.” Propst asks the same of those who work under him, saying they work 70-hour weeks. “I keep their noses to the grindstone,” Propst says of his assistants. “Football demands that. They leave here (for other jobs), and they are successful, and I’m proud of that. Hopefully, they’ve learned some things from me.” Says Ingram: “Propst grooms his assistants to become head coaches. He shows them how to do better. If he coaches until he’s 60, they’ll be 30-35 head coaches out there that he trained.” THE NETWORK Another crucial element to Propst’s success, has been his network of colleagues and mentors. “It’s all about contacts,” Propst says, “and you gotta keep up with them.” Over the years, he has cultivated relationships with head coaches such as Tommy Bowden, Steve Spurrier and Hal Mumme, and college assistants who have risen through the ranks such as Texas Tech’s Mike Leach, Valdosta State’s Chris Hatcher and offensive coordinators Jimbo Fisher (LSU) and Noel Mazzone (North Carolina State). How does one put together a little black book like that? Quite simple, really. “College coaches come in each spring to watch us practice, and you’re constantly visiting their campuses,” Propst says. “Remember, it’s a two-way street.” In other words, if college coaches want your players, they better take your calls. You shouldn’t be afraid to pick a coach’s brain, or to pick up the phone and share good ideas with him. Propst is always in touch with his friends in the business, one reason his friendships are strong. “Fisher and Mazzone will take big head-coaching jobs because of all the things they’ve done as offensive coordinators,” Propst says. “I’ve known those guys a long time. You build those relationships over the years, they trust and respect you, and you trust and respect them.” It all started in the mid-1980s when Propst befriended Bowden, then an assistant at Alabama. “I spent tons of time with Tommy,” Propst says. “He is one of the best receiver coaches in the country and taught me a lot. “And when Spurrier went to Florida, that impacted me more than anything. “Those first few springs in the early 1990’s, we would go down, watch practices and talk with their coaches. My offensive guys would talk to (then wide receivers coach) Dwayne Dixon. My defensive folks would go and talk to (then defensive coordinator) Ron Zook.” After 1993-94, success put greater time constraints on Florida coaching staff’s, so Propst and his staff began spending more time with Hal Mumme at Valdosta State. THE OFFENSE Propst is quick to credit Spurrier’s Fun ‘n’ Gun and Mumme’s spread schemes as having the most influence on how he runs Hoover’s pass-oriented offense, “The Buccaneer Air Raid.” The similarities between Propst’s offense and those of Southeastern Louisiana, Texas Tech and Valdosta State are eerie. This shouldn’t be a surprise seeing as Mumme and two of his proteges, Leach and Hatcher, are leading these collegiate programs. “We practice the same way, and have the same offensive philosophy,” Propst says. “If you look at Texas Tech’s playbook and Hoover’s there’s not a lot of difference. Our preparation and practices are all very similar. But we do a little more in the running game because in high school, you can work with your athletes in the summer. You are more limited in college football.” Propst says he gets together with members of his circle several times during the off-season to share ideas, but he stays in touch throughout the year. “During the season, we can pick up the phone, call (Texas Tech) and say, ‘Hey they’re giving us a tough time on this play,’ and they say, when they do that, we are doing this.’” The “Air Raid” has its origins in the college ranks, but it has revolutionized high school football in Alabama. “No one in the state can compare to Propst,” Ingram says. “Coaches were always defense-oriented. Now you have to score 30 points a game, and college coaches are coming to Propst, and saying, ‘tell us what you’re doing.’” Propst says a prime attraction of his offense is its wide-open nature that gets everyone involved. “We’re high octane – we’re going to throw it, and throw it and throw it,” he says. “It’s fun. Kids like to practice it, it scores points, it’s fun to watch, and it sells tickets.” It’s also a great way to recruit athletes from other sports-especially in the summer when the players are usually just working on their passing and receiving. “I get these basketball kids out there, and they come off the field loving this offense,” Propst says. “It’s basketball on grass.” Still, there are skeptics because the “Air Raid” is always aiming for the end zone, caring not a whit about the state of the Hoover defense. “One college coach told me, you can’t continue (using the “Air Raid”) because it makes your defense soft. But our defense has been smothering. The second year after Oklahoma put this offense in (Mike Leach was Oklahoma’s offensive coordinator in 1999) they won the national title.” Propst acknowledges the risks involved in a high-powered, home-run offense. That’s why he stresses depth on the other side of the ball. “We develop two-deep defensively, and we keep ‘em fresh,” Propst says. “The defense might be out there eight or nine plays, and on our second offensive play we score a 60-yard TD, and we’re kicking off again. We have to have six linebackers who can play and 10 DBs. “Coaches worry about time of possession, about field position, but I worry about snaps. The more times you snap the ball, the more chances you get to score. There are games when we snap the football 81 times. One time, we beat a team we had no business beating, and we snapped the ball 87 times. A normal high school team snaps the ball 52 times. Over the last four years, we’ve averaged 67-71 snaps.” SMALL SCHOOL, BIG SCHOOL, BIG PROBLEMS Propst acknowledges that things are easier when you’ve got a Hoover-sized budget. “We have the money to put me on a plane to Lubbock, Texas, or Gainesville, Florida,” Propst says, “But that’s what I’ve done over the last 16 years, I’ve spent a lot of time on campuses learning football.” In recent years, Propst has gone from the bottom of the heap-resource-wise-to the top. In 1998, Propst was named head coach of Alba Bryant, a school formed when two poorly funded, rural schools, Alba and Grand Bay, were combined. Alba had gone 1-19 before Propst arrived, and Grand Bay was 3-37. “If you watched ‘Forrest Gump,’ that’s what Alba was like,” Propst says of the community’s shrimping/fishing-based economy. “Both schools were literally falling in (from disrepair), and the kids came from families that didn’t have anything. The state built a brand new school, and we got a new stadium. You should have seen the pride.” Propst worked his changes incessantly, installed his offense, and led Alba Bryant to a 12-2 record, including seven straight shutouts to start the season. “They were two of the worst programs you could find,” Ingram says. “And we’re talking about wins vs. opponents that these two little schools wouldn’t have even dreamed about playing, let alone beating.” Soon after, Hoover officials came calling. Propst now works at the largest school in the state, a school with tremendous resources. “We’re a community of new money, and people who have new money are high-octane,” Propst says. “I’m a high-octane person, and I think we’re a great fit.” Says Ingram: “Hoover’s facilities are better than those of every college in the state except Auburn and Alabama. This community supports its programs-and not just sports, the academics are excellent.” Quite a contrast from Alba Bryant. But Propst’s life has not been easy since coming to Hoover. In June 2002, Buccaneers defensive back Victor Hill collapsed and died during a voluntary practice. The coaching staff could not be faulted: Hill hadn’t been on the field very long, and the workout wasn’t strenuous. As could be expected, the entire community was hit hard, especially the players and the team’s coaches. But Propst says that the lessons will not be forgotten. “You just don’t lose a player and let it go away,” he says. “You better treat your players as if they’re your own (kids). “Every day I go to practice, I think about the heat, if the players are well hydrated. Now we have three cardiologists at our tryouts. It makes you more thorough. Six months later, we had a child collapse on the basketball court. We had a defibrillator on her 3 minutes later, and she is alive today because of that. Victor’s death was not in vain.” Ingram says Hoover’s players bonded after Hill’s tragic passing, and that helped the team win the 2002 state title. “It was a very tough year,” Propst says. “My mother died the following summer.” Propst spent that year balancing time between work, his wife and three children, and his mother who had ovarian cancer. Propst’s father died of cancer in 1994. “I didn’t get to spend quality time with my father, and that bothered me.” Propst wanted to spend as much time as possible with his mother in her last days. He says: “I’d leave in the afternoons after practice and drive to Anniston. I’d get up in the morning and drive 80 miles back to Hoover, work 6-7 hours, then go back. I’m glad I did that, it’s something I’ll always cherish.” THE NEXT LEVEL? Propst says he no longer is consumed by a desire to be a college coach. Perhaps because of the trials he has faced in recent years, and perhaps because of the satisfaction he derives from coaching a top-notch prep program. But he says he would like to test himself. “I don’t want some guy at Oregon State reading this magazine and thinking I’m cocky.” Propst says. “I know I could be a good offensive coordinator, but I’d expect to take a job coaching a position on the offensive side and work my way up. I can evaluate talent, and I think I can be a great recruiter, but I’d have to learn. Expecting me to come in and be a good offensive coordinator and a great recruiter would be too much.” But, in a sense, Propst thinks he might be constrained in college. “If I went to the next level, I’m not sure I could take everything I do at Hoover with me,” Propst says. “Our kids are smart, and intelligent kids usually have a good work ethic. And I have these kids around all year.” And he keeps things busy at Hoover. He recently instituted a 7-on-7 tournament in July featuring some of America’s top teams such as Shreveport (La.) Evangel Christian. “We are trying to stir the bucket to get Hoover nationally recognized,” Propst says. “I’d love to get (Concord, Calif.) De La Salle here on a Saturday afternoon before college football season starts. I’d love to play Parkview out of Atlanta, Midland, Texas. We’ll play anybody.”
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