Joe Reich
Head Coach 
E-mail Coach Reich: reich@wingate.edu
Call Coach Reich: 704-233-8197

The Wingate University football team continues to reach new heights under the director of head coach Joe Reich and his staff. Only the fourth head coach in school history, Reich is 35-30 overall in six seasons at the Bulldog helm. In 2006, the Bulldogs compiled an 8-3 overall record with a 5-2 slate in the South Atlantic Conference. 

The Bulldog football team had a very successful 2006 season. Wingate placed a school-record 10 players on the 2006 All-South Atlantic Conference first and second teams. Wingate equaled its school record for senior college wins in a season with eight. Wingate’s five SAC wins is also a school record.  

Cornerback David Jones was selected by the New Orleans Saints in the fifth round of the 2007 NFL draft (145th overall selection). Jones signed a three-year contract in June. A 2007 Hula Bowl participant, Jones was a D2Football.com and AFCA All-American his senior season.

When Reich and his staff arrived in 2000, the team had completed a 1-10 season under the previous regime. The program has steadily improved each year, with the Bulldogs compiling an 8-3 overall record in both 2004 and 2006.  

Reich and his staff take academics seriously. In 2006, senior defensive end Frank Marino was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America® football first team (college division), selected by CoSIDA. Marino is the first Wingate football student-athlete to receive Academic All-America® laurels. Five Bulldogs were named

ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District III first team, including Marino, Dan Brooks, Jeremy Kent, Greg Keziah and Cam LeGrand. 

On the field, the Bulldogs were ranked in both the AFCA and D2Football.com polls at various times during the 2006 season. Wingate was ranked in the top 20 of the NCAA Division II for three separate weeks in 2004, charting as high as number 13 in various polls. Reich was named SAC Coach of the Year in 2004. 

The 43-year-old Reich spent eight years as an assistant coach at Buffalo. Prior to Buffalo, he was an assistant coach at his alma mater Gettysburg College and a graduate assistant coach at Georgia Tech under Bobby Ross.

Prior to joining the Wingate family, Reich was the defensive coordinator, punt block and return unit coach at Buffalo during Buffalo’s transition from Division I-AA to Division I. His Buffalo defense recorded the school’s first shutout in 10 years during the 1999 season.

During the 1996 season, Buffalo achieved its first-ever national ranking in The Sports Network Top 25 poll. The Bulls were ranked no. 25 for two consecutive weeks. His 1996 punt block unit had 15 blocked, partially blocked or no attempt punts.

Reich witnessed two transitions at Buffalo, as he was very instrumental in Buffalo’s move from NCAA Division III to NCAA Division I-AA. During his time at Gettysburg College, he coached five players who earned All-Centennial Conference or All-Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference honors.

As the graduate assistant coach at Georgia Tech, he worked under former University of Maryland and Detroit Lions head coach Bobby Ross as well as 1999 American Football Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year Ralph Friedgen. 

Reich played offensive line at Gettysburg from 1984-87, earning a B.A. degree in Mathematics in 1987. He has graduate credits toward an M.A. in Athletic Administration from the United States Sports Academy and credits toward an M.A. in Psychology from Georgia Tech.

He played high school football at Cedar Crest High School in Lebanon, Pa. His father was a head coach at Lebanon High School and Lebanon Valley College. Reich and his wife Deirdre have a son (Shane) and two daughters (Colleen and Lindsey).