Staying indoors

CEDAR RAPIDS - Mark Stoute was born and raised on the Caribbean island of Barbados with no knowledge of American football.

A track sprinter and soccer player in his youth, the third-year Cedar Rapids Titans football coach had clear career aspirations, but those plans quickly changed thanks to his forward-thinking parents.

'I was a beach bum,” Stoute said. 'My career goal was to be a pro surfer and my parents threatened me that if I didn't take a chance to go to college, that the surfing would have to end at some point.”

Stoute, 57, heeded their advice and attended Kentucky State on a track scholarship. He was a 400-meter hurdler and 1,600 relay participant, but when the season flipped to cross country Stoute's distance struggles signaled the need for a new fall activity.

'I went to a football game, a homecoming game, my first year,” Stoute said. 'Didn't really understand it, couldn't figure out the rules. ... And the helmet, that was kind of strange.”

Intrigued by the game, he enrolled in a touch football class run by the head coach and comprised mainly of players from the team. He hung around enough after class that once he tried putting his soccer skills to use on a football, he walked onto the team as a kicker.

'They signed me as a walk-on kicker for that fall, my sophomore year,” Stoute said. 'I was in college for five years, the last four was football, and the first four would have been track and they overlapped in the middle.”

Stoute continued playing after college with a semipro team in Connecticut, where he met current Titans special teams coach Michael Custer. Stoute and Custer even tried to catch on with the New Jersey Generals of the USFL, where they met receivers coach Rick Buffington. In 1995, Buffington became the head coach of the Connecticut Coyotes of the Arena Football League and offered Stoute - who had been working with the special teams at Southern Connecticut State - a coaching position.

'Left my job, took a flyer to go and be an assistant coach and I never looked back,” Stoute said.

Stoute spent four years with Buffington in Connecticut, Charlotte and Florida. In 2001, he received his first head coaching position with the Toronto Phantoms of the AFL. As has often been the case in Stoute's career, franchises come and go in the AFL, its developmental league af2 and the Indoor Football League. As a result, he's been with 13 teams in all three leagues throughout his 21 years as a professional football coach.

'As a coach, you have to have the mind-set that things are going to change,” Stoute said. 'So you have to do the best you can for as long as you can.”

Two of those stops were as an assistant with the Green Bay Blizzard (6-5), where the Titans (7-4) travel to Saturday for a crucial United Conference game. The winner will have the upper hand for the final conference playoff spot.

'The message to the team is basically we're in the playoffs right now,” Stoute said. 'We are in game playoff-mode from today.”

During the off-season, Stoute lives in Manchester, Conn. with his wife, Maria. He has spent 15 years coaching high school football in Connecticut and is currently an offensive assistant with Newington High School.

'I've always tried to use the high school part of it as a give-back to a sport that's done a whole lot for me,” Stoute said.

Given his substantial travels, Stoute appears to have found an IFL home in Cedar Rapids. He took over a 4-10 expansion team in 2013 and has a 27-14 record in two-plus seasons. His acute attention to detail, eye for talent and tough-but-fair approach to his players have the Titans within reach of a third consecutive playoff berth.

'One of the things that drew me to Cedar Rapids,” Stoute said. 'They weren't a successful team on the field, but they were very successful in the stands and the fan support. ... Very, very passionate community that's well-based in football and really likes the game. That's the kind of thing that you look for as a coach.”

l Comments: douglas.miles@thegazette.com