This is an opinion piece.

Former Davidson football coach Fred Riley is officially an author.

Riley’s short story, ‘Bo Don’t Know Me,’ will be released to the public in the coming days. I am told it will be available in most online outlets. More information to come on that.

It chronicles his year as an unpaid volunteer turned graduate assistant with Pat Dye’s Tigers in 1982 – Bo Jackson’s freshman year on the Plains.

“For true Auburn people who love coach Dye, who loved that time where Auburn football came back … There is so much in there as Auburn transitioned back to being a football power and how coach Dye did things,” Riley said of the book. “You get a view of the behind-the-scenes workings as Auburn was becoming relevant again, and I was blessed to be there watching.”

Here is how Riley, now the owner and coach of the semi-pro Fairhope Storm football team, chronicled Bo Jackson’s first carry in a live scrimmage at Auburn:

“He basically ran through the first defense and scored, and coach Dye comes out of the tower, which he didn’t do often, and said run that play again,” Riley said. “Bo does same thing again, and coach Dye makes a battlefield promotion and said this is our starting halfback. Bo was never run into hard at practice again. He was just a different, different athlete.”

That’s just one of the many stories Riley details in his first book.

“I told so many of these stories about my year at Auburn over the years,” said Riley, a former star quarterback at UNA. “Over time, folks said you really need to write a book. I ended up having the time to do it.

“God working in the way God works, the couple that sold us our lot in Fairhope also run a publishing company and are members of the same church we attend. They are also Auburn people. I asked them to take a look at what I had. He called me back a week later and said his wife loved it, and it was being published.”

Riley retired from high school coaching in 2017 following a 14-year stint at Davidson. He is the Warriors’ all-time winningest coach with 110 victories. He finished his high school career with 154 wins in 24 years as a head coach.

Riley’s quick wit, football knowledge and insight should make this book a good read, especially for Auburn fans. I got an early glimpse of it and was very entertained.

WKRG promotes Bowling Green legend Simone Eli

WKRG News 5 in Mobile announced this week that it was promoting Simone Eli to Sports Director. Simone replaces Randy Patrick, a TV fixture in the market for four decades.

Eli previously was sports director at WALA FOX 10 in Mobile. Before coming back to Mobile to work at WKRG, she was a sports anchor/reporter at CBS 42 in Birmingham, earning a Southeast Emmy in 2021 for Best Live Sports Program.

She also was a guest on Season 1 of the hit AL.com show “Down with DeShaun” with DeShaun Davis and co-hosted a weekly AL.com high school recruiting show with yours truly. Neither of those won an Emmy, but probably only because they weren’t nominated. It’s the only explanation really.

In all seriousness, Eli, an Ohio native, was a Division 1 basketball player at Bowling Green State University. As a former athlete and the wife of a high school coach, her passion for student-athletes will be a strong addition to high school coverage on the Gulf Coast.

Though the media industry continues to change, I still believe we are fortunate in Mobile to have strong high school sports coverage from our TV stations, radio stations, web sites, newspapers and other media platforms.

I’m blessed to be a small part of that.

Congrats, Simone.

Why Rush Propst returned to Alabama coaching

Rush Propst spent the last two years watching his son, Thomas, play football at Class 3A power Piedmont.

Propst, one of the most renown high school football coaches in the nation, said he wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.

“I found a place in the end zone by the fence — my wife and I and a group of friends we had at Piedmont. We called it ‘The Club,’” he said this week on Sports Talk 99.5 FM in Mobile. “There were 10 or 12 of us and, for two years, we would sit in that corner. We had so much fun.”

However, when Thomas’ career at Piedmont ended in the state championship game in Auburn last month, his father realized it was time to get back to work.

“It didn’t take two or three weeks before I realized, ‘Man, I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to get back to coaching,’ he said.

Propst was introduced Monday as the associate head coach and athletic director at Class 1A Coosa Christian in Gadsden. Mark O’Bryant, the reigning ASWA Class 1A Coach of the Year, is still there as well. Propst said they basically will be co-head coaches.

“Mark owns East Gadsden Sporting Goods as well,” he said. “I didn’t want him to say, ‘I’m just going to go back there. You take this over.’ I wouldn’t have done that. I wanted him to be with me and let’s do this together for a little while. Whether he does that for two months, three months, six months or a year – I don’t think he’s long-term doing it. But right now, we are co-head coaches. Titles are not that big a deal for me anyway. I’m really at peace with what I’m doing.”

Propst last coached in the state of Alabama in 2007. He freely admits he left Hoover under a cloud of negativity. Clearly, he believes this is his chance, not just to get back into the game he loves, but to finish on a better note than he did at his previous three stops (Hoover, Colquitt County, Valdosta).

“This is a Christian environment, and it just had a heavy pulling at my heart,” he said. “I think God was pulling at me to do this. I couldn’t sleep at night. I was restless and finally I called and said, ‘Look, I’m ready to do this if ya’ll are,’ and they said, ‘Heck, we’ve been waiting on you for three months.’ I jumped on it. It’s a chance to coach kids again. There are a lot of positive things here going forward.”

My friend and former college, Josh Bean, always said he would love to see Propst take over a smaller program and build it into a power. There is certainly that potential at Coosa. The team won seven games in a row toward the end of the 2022 season, reaching the state semifinals before losing 44-40 to Pickens County.

He said his offensive system won’t change just because he is at a smaller school.

“Will I water it down a little to start with? Maybe,” he said. “But if I was coaching at South Alabama or Auburn or Alabama, I would run the same system that I’ve run for the last 20 years. I believe in it. It’s been proven over and over and over.”

Will it lead Propst to another state title? Time will tell.

Mourning a Hall of Famer

The Alabama high school athletic community lost a legend earlier this week in Wallace Sanders.

Sanders, 81, died last weekend after an extended illness.

He coached basketball at Union Hill, Brewer and Decatur high schools in Morgan County, leading each to the state tournament. He retired with a 427-369 record, including 217 wins at Decatur.

Sanders was inducted into the Morgan County Sports Hall of Fame and the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

Following his retirement from coaching, he served the AHSAA in a volunteer capacity at the regional and state basketball tournaments and also served as an instructor in the AHSAA Coaches Education Program.

Milestone victory

Pisgah girls basketball coach Carey Ellison became the newest member of the AHSAA’s 700 Wins Club last week when his Eagles defeated North Sand Mountain 90-80.

After that win, his record as the Pisgah girls coach was 694-169 with eight state championships and 14 state finals appearances in 27 seasons.

He also started coaching the Eagles’ boys this season. They were 6-7 heading into the Jackson County tourney, making Ellison’s overall record 700-176 in varsity basketball competition.

Thought for the week

“God is always willing to talk with me. Am I willing to listen?” – The Upper Room.

Ben Thomas is the high school sportswriter at AL.com. He has been named one of the 50 legends of the Alabama Sports Writers Association. Follow him on twitter at @BenThomasPreps or email him at [email protected]. His weekly column is posted each Wednesday and Friday on AL.com. He can be heard weekly on “Inside High School Sports” on SportsTalk 99.5 FM in Mobile or on the free IHeart Radio App at 2 p.m. Wednesdays