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Building on his first year success, Rich Weinhandl enters his second year as the head coach for both the Judson men and women's cross country programs. He states, "This is the most excited I have been about my teams in the 20 years of I have been coaching."
Weinhandl took on the challenge of restarting the Judson cross country programs after a 12 year hiatus and had a short time to recruit as he was hired on December 7, 2007. In just those eight months before their first meet in August, he put together two competitive teams with some talented runners. On the women's side, Rachael Dean finished in the top 10 of every meet she ran in for the regular season and qualified for both the NAIA and NCCAA National Meets. The men's team competed strongly in every meet and had their best finish at Illinois College where they finished fourth.
Judson Director of Athletics Nancy Binger says, "Rich brings a wealth of experience to Judson after coaching for so many years at the high school level. I feel very confident that we have the right person to get our cross country program up and going again. He has a lot of passion and energy and will do a great job."
Weinhandl is no stranger of building programs as he rebuilt the Marengo High School cross country team from three players 20 years ago to a respected program now. In 18 years at Marengo HS, he produced five runners that qualified for the state meet. In the 1993 season, he had two runners advance to state in Debbie Nelson and Danielle Nelson. His most recent qualifier for state was Sarah Sprague in 2006. He also coached Marengo's only two-time All-State athlete in Chad Zeman.
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.
On the college scene, Weinhandl is a 1974 graduate of Greenville College in Greenville, Illinois, where he received his bachelor's degree in sociology. In 1981, he completed a master's in management from Webster College.
While at Greenville, he ran cross country and was named to the Outstanding College Athletes of America team, given the H.J. Long Award, and was the president of the G-Club and his senior class. He was a four-year letterman in both cross country and track and held three school records. He helped his team to a cross country conference championship in 1970 and his teams qualified for the NAIA National Meet in 1971, 72, and 73. From 1970-73, his teams set a schoolrecord for 28 consecutive home dual meet win streak. In 2004, he was inducted into the Greenville College Athletic Hall of Fame for all of his accomplishments.
Through the years, he has received several awards that include the Outstanding Young Men of America Award, Outstanding Educators of America, Special Olympics Flame of Hope Award, National Organization on Disabilities Program of Excellence award, the Turning Point Peace and Justice Award, and the Illinois Probation and Court Services Line Staff Award.
He currently resides in Marengo with his wife of 35 years, Rebecca. They have two children in Joshua (married) and Megan (junior at Taylor University).
