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Coaching Honors
1 NCCAA Cross Country All-American (Rachael Dean)
2 Team Championships (M/W - Wisconsin Lutheran)
2 NAIA/NCCAA Women's Individual Cross Country National Meet Appearances
1 NCCAA Men's Individual National Track and Field Meet Appearance
Heading into his third season of the new program, Rich Weinhandl has a solid core in place for Judson University. In the 2009 season, his men's team won their first-ever team championship at Wisconsin Lutheran. Weinhandl will also be the head men's coach for track and field, too.
Bringing in more talent for the 2009 season, Judson continued their trek up in the CCAC as they finished in the middle of the pack. His team continues to grow in talent and will be a team to watch in 2010.
In track and field, he took several runners to the 2010 NCCAA National Indoor and Outdoor National Track Meets. The Judson athletes gained valuable experience as they continue to grow this program under Weinhandl.
The 2010-11 season will mark the first season that he will be just the men's cross country and track and field coach as he handed over the women's teams to Joel Cotton. Weinhandl built a foundation for both programs in two years. For the women's team, he recruited both Rachael Dean and Kim Peek as they set new standards for women's cross country and track. Dean became a NCCAA All-American in track and went to the NAIA and NCCAA National meets in both cross country and track and field.
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.
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 36 years, Rebecca. They have two children in Joshua (married) and Megan (senior at Taylor University).
