Progessing toward becoming one of the premier NAIA programs in the midwest, Rich Weinhandl enters his fourth year at Judson University.  He has coached the men's cross country team the past three seasons and track field program the past two years.  Last year was the first season for Weinhandl as just the men's cross country and track and field coach after starting both programs.  He started both the men's and women's cross country programs in 2008 and the track and field programs in 2010. In 2010, he handed the women's cross country and track and field programs over to Joel Cotton. 

The 2010 season marked the first time that Judson University hosted a conference meet since restarting the program.  Weinhandl and Cotton both were in charge of the CCAC Championship meet that was run on the old Highlands Golf Course.  Judson finished in the middle of the pack in seventh place.  That season also marked the first time that Judson had participated in the NCCAA National Cross Country Meet since 1992. 

Weinhandl also took the task on for 2011, 2012, and 2013 to host the NCCAA National Outdoor Track and Field Meet in Joliet, Ill.  It is the first time that Judson has hosted a national and home track and field meet.  His men's track and field team had 13 participants for the NCCAA National Indoor Meet and five participants for the NCCAA National Outdoor Meet.  He also coached Judson's first-ever NAIA National Outdoor Track and Field participant for the field events in Caleb Sutton.  Sutton participated in the high jump, finishing in eighth place, after holding the top spot in the NAIA for most of the year by clearing 7'0".

As the women's cross country coach from 2008-09, Weinhandl set high standards for a new program.  He recruited both Rachael Dean and Kim Peek as they both ran in the NAIA National Cross Country meet in 2009.  Dean qualified for the NAIA National Cross Country Meet in 2008 and 2009 and became a NCCAA All-American in track. 

His teams also competed strongly every season as his girl teams were nine-time Sectional qualifiers and the went qualified four straight years (2001-2004). His girl teams went four years in a row from 1992 through 1995 and then four straight times in 2001 through 2004 while then qualifying in 2007. In his tenure, too, he has led his teams to championships at the Genoa and Grant Invitational meets.

His teams also did well in the classroom as several teams received team academic achievement awards from the Illinois High School Association.

In the coaching and officiating ranks, he has been a certified track official for 34 years. In 1995, he was named the Northwest Herald Cross Country Coach of the Year.

Weinhandl believes in community service and has taken his teams all over the United States to serve. In the summer of 2007, he took his Marengo High School cross country team to South Dakota to the Crow Creek Indian Reservation to learn more about the Indian culture and to do community service.

In August 2008, he retired from his day job in McHenry County as the assistant administrator for the county sheriff's office in Woodstock, Ill. He helped to write grants for the sheriff's department and was the executive director of the Friends of McHenry County Sheriff's Office Foundation in which he founded. He has also served as a probation officer for 13 years.