Senior free safety Lance Stone (left) has signed to play professional football in Taft, Finland.
PINEVILLE, La. – Graduating senior Lance Stone always hoped his football career would continue beyond his days at Louisiana College. He just never knew that his professional career would take quite this shape.
As of Tuesday, Stone, a two-year starter at free safety, boarded a plane in New Orleans and departed for Washington, D.C., where another plane took him to Frankfurt, Germany, where yet another plane took him to Helsinki, Finland, where an automobile was waiting to take him the last leg of his trans-oceanic voyage to Taft, Finland, where the Dierks, Ark., native will spend the next several months playing in the Finnish professional league.
“It all happened pretty quickly,” Stone said prior to leaving the States. “I’ve been wanting to play football professionally and this was my first real opportunity.”
It took a series of coincidences that folks at the Baptist college in Pineville are attributing to nothing less than divine intervention that led Stone to Taft, where he’ll be the only American on the field for his team’s defense (per league rules that stipulate that only one American can play on the field, on one side of the ball at a time).
More than a month ago, when Louisiana College opened its doors to a group of eight Finnish professional football coaches – part of LC defensive coordinator Buck Buchanan’s long-time ministerial outreach to Scandinavia – Stone met Taft coach Rami Lilja.
Lilja, a former Finnish pro himself, had to part ways with his former American-born stars due to accountability issues and happened to be in the market for a well-rounded defensive player, one who could also serve as something of an assistant coach on a team full of players who are still relatively new to the game.
Stone, an aspiring coach himself, happened to be a part of the clinic Buchanan and the rest of the LC staff put on for the Finnish contingent.
He also happened to be looking for a place to play post-college.
The rest was simple mathematics and contract negotiations.
“We all truly believe that the Lord had his hand in this,” Buchanan said. “He’s presenting Lance with an excellent opportunity to continue his career as a player. From what I understand, they’ve had problems in the past with their American-born players getting into some trouble and just not being dependable or accountable. They were looking for a player like Lance.
“Free safety for us is the quarterback of the defense and Lance will be basically another coach for them. They run a similar style defense to what we do and they thought Lance could be a big help to them.”
Buchanan, who for the last several years has taken mission trips to Finland and Sweden on which he conducts football camps, said that while he was a friend of many of the coaches in Finland, his own role in Stone’s signing was limited.
“All we could do was open a door for him,” Buchanan said. “He had to walk through it. He interviewed well and really impressed their coaches. The film they had on him spoke for itself.”
So, too, do the statistics that Stone has racked up.
In his two years as a starter, Stone has recorded 124 total tackles, seven tackles for loss, six interceptions and 13 pass breakups.
His 61 total tackles in 2009 were second-highest for the Wildcats and 63 in 2008 were third on the team.
“Lance has been a great player for us,” Louisiana College coach Dennis Dunn said. “He will eventually coach as a profession but right now he still has the passion and skill to pursue the game as a player. He’s the type of guy who has really begun to develop in the last two years and I think that he will continue to improve. Having watched him play the last few years, I can say that he has the talent to play for somebody (stateside). We wish him all the best as he pursues his dream.”
Stone said that while he was thrilled with his current situation, he did, like most college football players, hope to catch the eye of American professional teams with his play in Finland.
“I want to use this season in Finland to continue to develop and get my name out there a little bit more,” Stone said. “Hopefully, I can eventually come back here and get a shot in one of the higher developmental leagues.