COOSADA, AL – Rush Propst is one of those unique individuals who, much like a cat, continues to land on his feet no matter what kind of trouble he creates.
After being fired in March 2019 from his 11-year head coach position at Colquitt County High School for a number of shocking allegations, including giving student athletes drugs, the case was handed over to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission.
Now Propst, who made it clear earlier this year that he was not interested in retiring and was still eager to coach, is set to become the head coach at the Ultimate Student Athletes (USA) Academy, located in Coosada, Alabama.
Visiting the USA Academy’s flashy website you will encounter a fierce golden-eyed eagle with the bold slug beneath its logo reading: FOR SERIOUS ATHLETES ONLY and “Coming Soon, Coming Soon, Coming Soon” banners across the bottom.
USA Academy’s Mission Statement reads:
ULTIMATE STUDENT ATHLETE’S MISSION IS TO SEEK EXCEPTIONALLY PROMISING STUDENT ATHLETES OF ALL BACKGROUNDS FROM ACROSS THE NATION AND AROUND THE WORLD AND TO EDUCATE THEM, THROUGH MENTAL DISCIPLINE, PHYSICAL DISCIPLINE AND ATHLETIC EXPERIENCE. OUR AIM IS TO CULTIVATE THEIR CREATIVE, INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, CIVIC, AND ATHLETIC CAPACITIES TO BEYOND THEIR OWN UNDERSTANDABLE LIMITS, WHILE PUTTING THEM ON A NATIONAL STAGE TO EXCEL IN THEIR HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETIC EXPERIENCES, WHILE PREPARING THEM FOR THE NEXT STAGES OF LIFE IN WHATEVER GOD HAS PLANNED.
USA Academy’s website/Mission Statement
Propst is a perfect fit for a high school exclusively-designed for athletes, where recruiting is not forbidden but the name of the game. He won’t have to abide by the strict guidelines of mainstream high school athletic programs and he can probably be as Propst as he wants to be.
Propst was lionized as an uber-coach long before his Colquitt Co. Packers winning seasons and well before this year’s controversial dismissal. In 2006-2007, MTV aired “Two-A-Days,” a program which featured him when he was head coach at Hoover High School in Alabama. He was also featured on an ESPN “E 60” episode which highlighted his double personal life, “Friday Night Lies.” Probst, as it turned out, had a wife and kids, and a girlfriend on the side, with another set of kids in another town.
Propst showed he had comeback appeal when he owned up to his infidelity and seemed to be rewarded for his transgressions after the ESPN docu-confessional. He was hired as head coach of Moultrie’s Packers and steamrolled through the high school football mecca of South Georgia’s. Propst was a winner, and he made his players winners, and gave Colquitt County High School the winning status every high school football program covets.
Propst is as loved as he is reviled. He is a natural media darling and an ace sportsman with a record of 300 wins.
With USA Academy taking him in, Probst will be the star of more hype as he builds a new football program from scratch at this new kind of athlete-exclusive high school.
The plan is to begin distributing the rights to Propst’s new world to Netflix, Amazon, Prime Video and Hulu, with exclusive content coming over their USA Academy website.
January 2020 will begin USA Academy’s legacy, as they break ground that will include a 19,000-square-foot football facility next to a 5,000-seat stadium.
The website addresses its academic goals for its “recruits” such as a trademarked “Optimal Learning Scope” which is described (with some flagrant misspellings) as:
Optimal Learning Scope™
The cornerstone of our education platform is our Optimal Learning Scope. We understand that every student does not learn the same way, so we have implemented a unique approach in building a step by step plan with the student that will expose their academic strengths and minimize their weaknesses, all while keeping them on track inside of our NCAA Approved Cirriculum (sic) and preparing them for the next level of educational goals.
USA Academy’s Optimal Learning Scope
Propst has a new chance, and new job, a new school, a new legacy with a new kind of school custom-tailored to building professional athletes.
Let’s see what he comes up with next.
