Rush Propst is back in Alabama coaching the Pell City football team and on Thursday he was in Hoover for his team’s first taste of organized competition.

Propst in Hoover? Something told me that maybe I needed to be there to monitor the situation. Call it the gut instinct of a curious observer.

The occasion was a 7-on-7 tournament involving 16 teams from throughout the state. Typical summertime stuff. I’m not really an expert of 7-on-7 competitions, but it’s always encouraging to see young people dedicating their summers to something other than eating Cheetos and video games.

To call 7-on-7 a legitimate form of football is probably offensive to guys like John Hannah and Nick Fairley, but I like the concept of 7-on-7 for offseason training. It’s just skill players going out for passes against other skill players in a game of two-hand touch. Tackling isn’t allowed, but players wear helmets just in case. It’s all pretty casual. There’s tons of scoring, so it’s fun for the kids, and younger players can experience performing under pressure without the fear of getting their heads bashed in.

Pike Road ended up winning the tournament. Oxford was the runner-up and knocked off Pell City in the quarterfinals. Both Pike Road and Oxford are loaded with talent and I hope everyone gets five stars, full scholarships and six-figure NIL deals that they then channel wisely into low-risk investments.

Pell City went 5-1 in the tournament. Not bad, but Propst’s team is very much a work in progress. He says they’ve made some positive strides since he took over a few months ago, and I can see that. I went to one of Propst’s first practices. It was pretty rough. Since that initial visit, Propst picked up some new players including a young quarterback from Los Angeles.

L.A. to Pell City? That’s quite the move considering Pell City went 1-9 last year.

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I gotta be honest. I’m drawn to the story of Propst in Pell City like a big, fat green fly to potato salad at a picnic on the lake. It’s an irresistible subject for a columnist on multiple levels. Propst has done two reality TV shows, and he tells me he might do another at Pell City beginning next season.

The quarterback is Nikita Getmanshchuk. He’s a rising 10th grader. There’s talent there, and I can tell that he’s a tough competitor, but he needs to put on some weight. Right now, I worry for his safety in the pocket. He’s about a full year’s worth of protein shakes away from being big enough to absorb a blindside sack without risk of serious injury.

Getmanshchuk’s stepfather, David Yarbrough, is from Alabama and went to Erwin High School. That’s the connection to the area.

“My stepdad knew of Coach Propst because Coach Propst was at Hoover when my stepdad played at Erwin,” Getmanshchuk said. “He knew how good of a coach he was.”

I interviewed Getmanshchuk briefly after Pell City’s loss to Oxford in the 7-on-7 tournament. His biological father, Vadin, moved from Ukraine to Miami when he was 19. Vadin worked his way up in the IT industry. He recently moved from L.A. to Pell City, according to his son, so you know what that means — yet another brand new pontoon boat out on Pirate Island this Labor Day.

I’m sure plenty of critics will want to frame Getmanshchuk’s move to Pell City as typical high school football shenanigans, but that’s missing a bigger picture. A lot of people from big cities who can work from home are moving to smaller towns throughout the U.S. It’s a major trend, and it’s easy to understand the draw. Pell City is a beautiful community with nice people and it’s affordable.

Pell City is experiencing a population boom, and Propst now represents the growth of the area. Is he the tourism board’s first choice for community spokesman? Probably not, but a Pell City-based high school football reality TV show on Netflix sounds like a win for the area to me.

Propst is a polarizing figure, but he’s a great football coach and winner of seven state championships between Alabama (five) and Georgia (two). He’s infamous for losing jobs, though. He resigned at Hoover in 2007 under multiple controversies and was removed from coaching at both of his jobs in Georgia (Colquitt County and Valdosta).

I want Propst to succeed at Pell City, and I know that others do, too. I also know that a lot of people don’t appreciate his overly aggressive style of coaching. Controversies have always surrounded him, but so have loyal friends who say he’s misunderstood and a great person. I don’t think Propst is a bad guy, but he’s no saint either. That’s a lot of us.

Can Propst actually win at Pell City? Can Pell City even get out of a region that includes 6A powerhouse Clay-Chalkville, Pinson Valley and Oxford? The team has won a total of three games in two years. Propst is calling this the biggest challenge of his career.

I got a glimpse of that challenge out at Hoover, and, for the first time with Pell City, I also witnessed the side of Propst that has always landed him in trouble. His competitive nature is constantly simmering right there below the surface.

Pell City’s biggest rival is Oxford, and, coincidentally, they were matched in the 7-on-7 tournament. It was win or go home and Pell City wasn’t ready. Oxford won 30-2. Getmanshchuk threw a couple interceptions early and things spiraled from there. Pell City had the ball with time for one more play, and Oxford’s sideline decided to use that moment to taunt their rivals.

“Mercy rule,” shouted the Oxford players.

“Make their asses quit,” shouted one of Oxford’s coaches.

There was nothing casual or friendly about the moment. It was just 7-on-7, but Oxford wanted to make a point. Rush who? For Propst, the outburst from Oxford’s coach was too much for him to handle. Propst took a few sudden paces onto the field. He was angry.

“Hey!” Propst screamed. “F— you!”

Assistants pulled him back. It was a scene. In his first competitive environment as Pell City’s coach, Propst publicly dropped the F-bomb on Pell City’s principle rival. It was a flash of a personality trait that’s either Propst’s greatest strength or his biggest weakness. The final play of the game was an incompletion. Afterwards, Propst shook hands with every player from his school’s rival and apologized to Oxford’s coach.

The thought crossed my mind early on with Propst that maybe he took the job at Pell City so he could live at the lake and stroll quietly into retirement. That was an incorrect assumption. Propst is back in Alabama and he will not be going out quietly.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama”, a book about togetherness, hope and rum. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.