Karl Featherstone enters his third season as defensive backs coach at Albion in 2025.
In his first season coaching for the Britons in 2023, Featherstone's defensive backs helped Albion to the No. 1 defense in the MIAA in a host of categories – including third down defense (33.5%), red zone defense (62.1%) and rushing defense (87.6).
That year, he mentored Larry Platt to third-team All-Region from D3Football.com and first-team All-MIAA honors. Platt covered some of the best receivers in the conference and tallied 44 tackles, 5.5 TFL, five passes defensed and an interception.
Prior to Albion, Featherstone spent over 30 years coaching football at various levels. Most recently, he spent time as an assistant coach at De La Salle High School in Warren, Mich. from 2020-22. He helped the Pilots to three straight MHSAA Division 2 state championship games in that span, including winning titles in 2021 and 2022.
From 2016-18, Featherstone coached Oakland University's club football team serving in a variety of roles which included assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and special teams coordinator. He helped the Golden Grizzlies win the National Club Football Association (NCFA) National Championship in 2016.
Featherstone was a coaching consultant at Martin Luther King High School in Lithonia, Ga. for four seasons from 2012-15. In 2012, the Lions went 11-1 and made it to the regional finals of the GHSA 5A state playoffs. They also made the playoffs again the following season. Throughout his time at King, two players (DeAngelo Malone and Terez Hall) played in the National Football League.
Two of Featherstone's coaching stints came in arena football, which played its seasons in the spring. From 2006-07, he served as special teams coordinator and head coach of the Great Lakes Indoor Football League's Port Huron Pirates and helped lead them to a league championship in 2006. In 2007 as the head coach, Featherstone took Port Huron to the playoffs, this time losing in the title game and was named the league's coach of the year.
From 2008-09, he was the head coach for the Saginaw Sting who competed in the Continental Indoor Football League (CIFL). In their inaugural season in 2008, the Sting won the CIFL championship.
The Indianola, Miss. native graduated from Gentry High School in 1981 before playing wide receiver at Texas Southern University from 1981-84 where he was a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. After earning a computer science degree, Featherstone signed a free-agent contract with the St. Louis Cardinals of the NFL in 1985, where he was on both their active roster and practice squad.
He also briefly played for the USFL's Houston Gamblers in 1986 before the league folded, where future Pro Football Hall of Famer Jim Kelly was the starting quarterback.
After an injury forced him to retire from playing football, Featherstone joined the United States Marine Corps. While he saw active combat in Grenada, Panama and in the first Iraq war, he began his coaching career with the All-Marine team. He was also deployed in the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans aboard the USS Ranger which was based in San Diego.
Featherstone began coaching high school football in Michigan in 1990, first at St. Clair Shores Lakeview, and then as an assistant at Royal Oak Kimball and Royal Oak Dondero, as well as De La Salle.
Featherstone was a police officer for the city of St. Clair Shores for 25 years before retiring in 2015. He also earned a master's in criminal justice from Purdue University in 2009. Him and his wife, Lorie, have a son, Kadin, who played football as a lineman at De La Salle and then collegiately at Butler.
