Stouter left behind legacy of excellence
Maura Stouter always seemed to carry her life in her pockets -- keys, notes, volleyball scouting reports, colored pens -- creating pants so laughably stuffed they became a running joke for the coach and the rest of the athletic department at Smithtown High School. But Stouter had her methods, and few would ever question her results: she retired as one of the most successful girls volleyball coaches in New York State history.
Last Saturday, Stouter, 63, died at her home in New Lebanon after a yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer, leaving behind a long legacy of athletic excellence on Long Island.
A pioneer for women's high school sports in New York, Stouter amassed 590 wins -- fourth-most all-time in state public school history -- and 23 league championships over her 30-year career as a girls volleyball coach at Smithtown High, earning a spot in the Smithtown Hall of Fame in 2003. She also won a Suffolk County Coaches Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006 and nine coach of the Year awards from 1990 to 2000.
Early in her coaching career, Stouter led a coalition pushing for greater influence and support for girls' sports in the Smithtown Center School District. Her relentlessness, just as the Title IX Educational Amendments of 1972 were passed, helped bring better equality for high school athletics across all of Long Island.
"We were just trying to get girls the same opportunities that the guys already had," said Nancy Cole, former Centereach High School field hockey coach. "The two of us were very committed to that. We talked about it quite a lot and kind of formulated little strategies for how to go about this without being too offensive to everyone."
After graduating from SUNY-Cortland in 1970, Stouter, a skilled badminton player, went to work for Smithtown and soon took up volleyball as a coaching job. It quickly developed into a passion, and she created unique ways of coaching.
Like the pens. Stouter carried a different colored pen for each player on the team, keeping track of statistics and highlighting successes or ways to improve. Such individual attention was never overlooked by her players and colleagues.
"She had her own methods," said Anne Naughton, the Smithtown East field hockey coach. "I wish I paid more attention to some of her little things that she did, I tried to as much as I could. She just had unique ways of motivating kids and the way she made everybody on her team have a specific role and feel important."
After retiring from Smithtown in 2003, Stouter moved upstate and helped found a boys volleyball team at New Lebanon High School. Within two years, the team won its first regional championship.
"She was just so organized it was incredible," said Nick Schroeder, Smithtown's athletic director from 1987-2003. "She was a great teacher of the game."
