Derek Stingley Sr. (born April 9, 1971) is an American football coach. Prior to his coaching career, he had a nine-year playing career in the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

. Stingley also played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

Triton College Triton College is a public community college in River Grove, Illinois. History Junior College District 300 was voted into existence in a referendum in March 1964. In March 1965, a second referendum was passed approving the purchase of an camp ...

and was selected in the

1993 Major League Baseball Draft The 1993 Major League Baseball draft began with first round selections on June 3, 1993. Alex Rodriguez was selected first overall by the Seattle Mariners. Other notable draftees included Chris Carpenter, Torii Hunter, Jason Varitek, Scott Role ...

as a center fielder by the

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has been Citize ...

, where he spent three seasons (1993–1995) in their minor-league system.

Early life

Stingley was just seven years old when his father,

Darryl Stingley Darryl Floyd Stingley (September 18, 1951April 5, 2007) was an American professional football player, a wide receiver whose career was ended at age 26 by an on-field spinal cord injury. He played his entire five-year career with the New England ...

a wide receiver for the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

, was

paralyzed Paralysis (also known as plegia) is a loss of motor function in one or more muscles. Paralysis can also be accompanied by a loss of feeling (sensory loss) in the affected area if there is sensory damage. In the United States, roughly 1 in 50 ...

in a preseason game, after being hit by

Oakland Raiders The Oakland Raiders were a professional American football team that played in Oakland from its founding in 1960 to 1981 and again from 1995 to 2019 before relocating to the Las Vegas metropolitan area where they now play as the Las Vegas Ra ...

safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are two slightly di ...

Jack Tatum John David Tatum (November 18, 1948 – July 27, 2010) was an American football safety. He played 10 seasons, from 1971 through 1980, with the Oakland Raiders and Houston Oilers in the National Football League (NFL). He was popularly known as " ...

on August 12, 1978.

College career

Stingley enrolled at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and ...

in 1989, where he intended to play both football and

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

. However, he soon decided that he was too small, at just 5' 10" tall and 150 pounds, to play football in the

Big Ten Conference The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conferen ...

. So he decided to leave Purdue and attended two smaller, junior colleges, located in

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Roc ...

. He graduated from Triton College.

Professional playing career

Stingley was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1993 Major League Baseball Draft. He played in the Phillies organization for three seasons before deciding to play professional football. He began his professional football career playing for the Louisiana Bayou Thunder, a semi-pro football team. He was then signed to play in the Arena Football League by

Mike Hohensee Michael Louis Hohensee (born February 22, 1961) is a former professional football quarterback who played in the United States Football League, Canadian Football League, National Football League and Arena Football League. He most recently the hea ...

, then-head coach of the

Albany Firebirds The Indiana Firebirds were a team in the Arena Football League. The team was based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Home games were played at the Conseco Fieldhouse, also the home of the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association and Indiana ...

. On June 14, 1998, Stingley was on the receiving end of a hard hit by Thomas Orr of the

New York CityHawks The Toronto Phantoms were a professional arena football team based in Toronto, Ontario. The team was a member of the Eastern Division of the National Conference of the Arena Football League (AFL). The team also previously operated in New York Ci ...

that left him unconscious for 10 minutes, many believing that Stingley, like his father, had been paralyzed by the hit. However, he soon recovered. Coincidentally, his father was in attendance at that game. As a result, he did miss one game, suffering a concussion from the hit. In 1999, Stingley was signed to the New York Jets' practice squad. However, he was released by the team after just three practices. On January 15, 2002, Stingley was waived by the

Chicago Rush The Chicago Rush were a professional arena football team based in Rosemont, Illinois. The team played at the Allstate Arena from 2001 to 2013. They were a member of the Central Division of the National Conference of the Arena Football League ...

. In February 2003, Stingley signed with the

Carolina Cobras The Carolina Cobras were an expansion franchise in the Arena Football League. The team was formed prior to the 2000 season, which endured a player strike. The team was originally based in Raleigh, North Carolina, but moved to Charlotte followin ...

Professional coaching career

af2

Stingley began his coaching career with the

Macon Knights The Macon Knights were a professional arena football team, playing in the af2 league. They were a 2001 expansion member of af2. They played their home games at Macon Coliseum. The Knights were owned and operated by Beverly Olson. The Knights were ...

of the

af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football ru ...

, the Arena Football League's

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in N ...

, in

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris (dwarf planet), Er ...

as a

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator is a coach responsible for a gridiron football (American football) team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's c ...

, but was promoted to

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other Coach (sport), coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manage ...

midway through the season. He coached the Knights for two seasons and was able to turn around a losing 2–4 record, finishing the 2005 season at 8–8 and making the playoffs. In the 2006 season, the team again finished 8–8, just missing the playoffs by one game. After spending two seasons with the Knights, he was hired as the head coach of the

South Georgia Wildcats The South Georgia Wildcats were a professional arena football team based in Albany, Georgia. They were member of the South Division of the American Conference of Arenafootball2 (AF2). The Wildcats joined the AF2 in 2002 as an expansion team, ...

, after the firing of coach Donnie Davis and a 3–13 season. In 2007, his first season with South Georgia, Stingley recorded a 10–6 record and advanced to the second round of the playoffs. In his second and final season with the Wildcats, he was named the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing ...

Coach of the Year after the Wildcats finished with a 12-4 record, winning their final seven games to close out the regular season and captured first place in the league's South Division. The team also finished in the top ten in several statistical categories, including scoring defense, rushing defense and interceptions. While a head coach in af2, his overall record was 37 wins and 25 losses, a winning percentage of .597, including three postseason appearances. On November 17, it was announced that Stingley had signed with the Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings to become the team's defensive coordinator.

Arena Football League

On September 16, 2008, he was hired by the

New Orleans VooDoo Louisiana Voodoo (french: Vaudou louisianais, es, Vudú de Luisiana), also known as New Orleans Voodoo, is an African diasporic religion which originated in Louisiana, now in the southern United States. It arose through a process of syncretism ...

as their new defensive coordinator. On October 15, 2008, the VooDoo announced that the team was ceasing operations resulting in Stingley's contract being nullified. On September 16, 2010, he was hired by the reformed VooDoo as their head coach until June 26, 2011, when he was released during his first season. On May 21, 2012, he was named the head coach of the AFL's

Pittsburgh Power The Pittsburgh Power were a professional arena football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The team belonged to the East Division of the American Conference (AC) in the Arena Football League (AFL). Founded in 2011, the Power ...

. Stingley was announced as the first head coach of the

Shanghai Skywalkers The Shanghai Skywalkers are a professional arena football team based in Shanghai, China. They are members of the China Arena Football League The China Arena Football League (), often abbreviated as the CAFL, was a professional arena football ...

of the

China Arena Football League The China Arena Football League (), often abbreviated as the CAFL, was a professional arena football league that played its games in the People's Republic of China. It featured players from the now-defunct Arena Football League (AFL) and other ...

(CAFL) in June 2016. The CAFL played one season in 2016 and all subsequent seasons have since been postponed. During the CAFL hiatus, he was also the head coach of the

Georgia Doom The Georgia Doom were a professional indoor football team based out of Macon, Georgia. They play their home games at Macon Coliseum. They started as a midseason road team filling in for the folded Dayton Wolfpack in the National Arena League in ...

of the

American Arena League The American Arena League (AAL) is a professional indoor football minor league that began playing in 2018. The league was initiated by a merger between Arena Pro Football (APF) and the Can-Am Indoor Football League (Can-Am), although the AAL o ...

(AAL) for four games in 2018.

Personal

Stingley is the youngest child of Darryl and Tina Stingley. He currently resides in

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of count ...

along with his wife Natasha and their four children Isis, Nahjha, Derek Jr., and Sanaa. Today he is the head coach of The Dunham School 7–8th grade football team.

Notes

External links

New Orleans VooDoo profile

South Georgia Wildcats profile

Profile
at

Scout.com Scout Media is an integrated sports publishing company that produces Internet content covering hundreds of professional and college teams across America. The company was founded in 2001 and was acquired by Fox Sports in 2005. In 2013, Fox Spor ...

Profile at Baseball Reference
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stingley, Derek 1971 births Living people Albany Firebirds players Pittsburgh Power coaches Arizona Rattlers players Carolina Cobras players Chicago Rush players Dallas Desperados players Martinsville Phillies players Sportspeople from Chicago Piedmont Phillies players Purdue University alumni Spartanburg Phillies players South Georgia Wildcats coaches Kishwaukee Kougars baseball players Triton Trojans baseball players New Orleans VooDoo coaches Philadelphia Soul coaches China Arena Football League coaches Macon Knights coaches Bossier–Shreveport Battle Wings coaches Indoor American football coaches Players of American football from Chicago