JACKSONVILLE — Joe Stoute of Vilonia, maintenance manager for the Jacksonville Parks and Recreation Department, was a catcher when he played baseball in high school — a hardworking position with little glory. That’s how Stoute likes his jobs.
But he’s been pulled into the limelight as recipient of the United States Specialty Sports Association Midwest Regional Director of the Year Award for his work with slowpitch softball.
“I wasn’t expecting it,” Stoute said of the award. “Sometimes things are politically driven, and I try to be the opposite of that. It was kind of cool to get that.”
Kind of cool. Kevin House, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, puts it another way.
“This is a big deal,” House said. “This award he received is out of 13 states — it’s not just Arkansas. It’s regional director of the year. It is a really big deal.”
He said the honor is given based on several criteria, including team satisfaction at tournaments, the number of teams involved and more.
Stoute (pronounced Stoot) is celebrating his one-year anniversary this month with the Jacksonville Parks and Recreation Department.
He is also the assistant state director/tournament director for USSSA Arkansas Slowpitch Softball, which is almost like a second job to his day job for parks and recreation. He’s been involved with the USSSA for about 10 years as a director.
Stoute, 38, grew up in Nimrod and played baseball at Perryville High School and one year at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, too. But he said college wasn’t for him.
He then started playing softball under the USSSA, where he played third base and pitcher.
“It’s pretty competitive. There are a lot of ex college players, guys who were pretty good in high school, … who start playing softball instead of baseball.”
What were his strengths?
“Defensively, I was probably pretty good; I’d say that,” Stoute said.
“I stopped playing about four years ago and started taking the director stuff more seriously. I already had one foot out the door,” Stoute said, and the last year he played, he got plantar fasciitis in both feet.
Even as a player, he helped organize the tournaments, 80 percent of which are held in Dupree Park in Jacksonville, he said.
“I get a lot of good feedback; I’m an ex-player. Getting to hang out with my buddies on the weekend while I’m working — to me, that’s pretty cool,” he said.
“Any given weekend, we’ll have 30 to 40 teams. It’s a lot of moving parts. It is,” he said, pausing to laugh, “quite time-consuming.”
He doesn’t set goals, per se.
“I just try to do the best for everybody. Players and teams, if they need something, I do my best to help them out. At the tournaments, I try to throw the best tournament I can. I got one in May that I’ve already got 97 teams in,” he said.
That tournament will be held in Dupree Park and in the Sherwood Sports Complex.
Softball has been a huge part of Stoute’s life. He said he and his wife, Amy, met when he was playing softball in Fayetteville and she was watching the game. They have two sons, Easton, 12, and Beau, 6.
“Juggling my regular job, then with my kids, it is a lot of hard work to make sure everything’s prioritized the right way,” Stoute said.
He added that he and Ken Hawk, state director of Arkansas
USSSA Slowpitch Softball, work well together.
Stoute said he was asked to attend the regional meeting in Houston, Texas, in January, when he would have received the award. However, he said he was new in his position in Jacksonville and didn’t have time to take off.
Hawk, who lives in Sherwood, said he presented Stoute with a plaque in March at a softball tournament in Jacksonville. He said Stoute was chosen from about 100 directors.
“We call him the people’s director — he likes to please everybody, and you can’t,” Hawk said. “Joe’s a great guy; he’s very personable. Any notoriety embarrasses him. He goes out of his way to make everybody feel like they’re getting a fair shake. He wants everybody to be happy.”
Hawk said Stoute also works as an umpire for slowpitch softball when he’s not organizing tournaments.
Prior to his job in Jacksonville, Stoute worked for 12 years for the Conway Parks and Recreation Department, where he was a supervisor.
Steve Ibbotson, director of the Conway department, described Stoute as “very humble.”
“You could always count on him, and he was a great supervisor,” Ibbotson said. “He really had a variety of skills that benefited us immensely.”
Ibbotson said, for example, that Stoute was a carpenter and a backhoe and bucket-truck operator.
Stoute said what the award represents to him is, “a lot of hard work. It’s nice to be recognized sometimes. I try not to be, you know, I guess a big ego. I try not to be like that. I try to be myself.”
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.