A coach with a wide-range of experiences, Featherstone has 324 international matches to his credit as a former Olympic coach for both the United States (1984) and South Africa (1996). At the 1984 games, he was the youngest coach to ever take a field hockey team to the Olympics. He also led the USA in the Pan-American games, while heading up South Africa in the World Cup and All-African games. Featherstone has also served as the head coach for England's men's and women's U21 World Cup teams. An outstanding tactician, Featherstone has produced 20 DVDs endorsed by the International Hockey Federation (FIH), which have been distributed worldwide to more than 25 countries to teach strategies and principles of field hockey. He has also been selected in the past to lead several world seminars by the FIH in the use of video breakdown and film study by athletes to improve performance on the pitch. As a player, Featherstone competed for Durham University, where he captained the first field hockey club in school history, eventually becoming President of the Durham University Athletic Union, and played hockey for the British Universities Team. Featherstone then went on to play in England's national program, where he was team captain at all levels and played in both the World and European Cups.

He received a Bachelors of Arts degree from Durham in 1975 before earning a Postgraduate Certificate of Education from Oxford University in 1976.