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closeHuddle up: PHS coach, teacher gets Hall of Fame recognition
Marques Hunter
Huddle up
Successful high school programs begin with their head coach. If you don’t believe me, look at Gig Harbor and Peninsula high schools. The most well-coached teams draw the best talent and are developed into college-bound athletes.
Without proper coaching, talent has no direction, and it never reaches its true potential.
My Mount Tahoma High School football team had more talent than our record reflected. We lacked discipline, structure and inspiration. We lost every game except for our last one.
When I see coaching staffs at Peninsula and Gig Harbor, I wonder how good we would’ve been at Mount Tahoma if we had the same level of instruction.
Without good coaching, a program can simply spin its wheels with uncontrolled talent.
What separates good coaches from the great ones are those who pour just as much effort into teaching in the classroom as the field. Take, for example, former Peninsula coach and teacher Bill Stout.
I hadn’t heard of or met Stout, but after I spoke to one of his close friends, former Peninsula coach Tom Reardon, it became apparent that Stout was a highly inspirational man.
“Nobody could have fun like Bill could have fun,” Reardon said. “He was an all-around guy. He was one of the best high school teachers.”
He was one of five coaches who were inducted into the state Wrestling Coaches Hall of Fame on Nov. 7 at the Yakima Convention Center.
Stout died in January 2003 from lung cancer. He’s survived by wife Mary and their four children, Jacqui, Lauren, Allison and Charles.
He was one of those people who cared for others more than him. He felt like he owed it to the kids and the program, but he held each one of his student-athletes accountable for their actions.
Reardon said when Stout coached the varsity wrestling team in his first year in 1978, they were manhandled by Franklin Pierce’s junior varsity in their first match.
Stout made them run lines until the gym custodian turned the lights off.
Now that’s what I call discipline.
He must have gained the respect of his team instantly, or made some of them too afraid to return.
Stout also was the linebackers coach for the Peninsula football team when the Seahawks won the state championship in 1978.
In 1987, he was the wrestling head coach when they won the AA state title, again the school’s only championship in that sport.
Stout’s accomplishments are hard to put into perspective.
He was considered one of the top 100 teachers in the country as a math instructor, and he helped form the area’s first AAU wrestling team which developed fundraising programs and directed trips for wrestling exchange teams that visited countries around the world.
Stout left the Peninsula School District for a teaching position at Bellarmine Prep in Tacoma. He is considered one of the most respected coaches in the history of Peninsula High School sports.
Among his accomplishments are:
Peninsula wrestling coach from 1978-1992.
Won 10 league, six district and four regional wrestling titles, along with the 1987 state team title.
Member of the coaching staff that won the school’s only football state championship in 1978.
Considered one of the top 100 teachers in the country.
Tried out for the Kansas City Chiefs as an offensive lineman.
Was a nationally ranked wrestler for the University of Puget Sound.