It’s a lifelong drama that continues to play out through competition and loyalty and impacting young people’s lives.
Retired from his 23-year career coaching Wingate’s Division Two football program, now-60-year-old Joe Reich wasn’t looking for a second act. Yet one found him just the same.
“It’s like climbing a second mountain,” he said. “You’ve still got to climb a mountain, but it’s a different mountain. It’s still one foot in front of another. The rocks are going to be different, but it takes a similar drive and focus.
“I used to say I was going to coach football until I was in my 70s. I feel like I’m a young 60. I think I still have some juice. There’s going to come a time when I don’t have as much juice. If I screw it up, at least I have time to fix it. When you’re 65, you can’t really do a redo. I think the plan now is: ‘Let’s get to 70, and see where we are.’ I love working. I like to stay busy. I think the fact that I became an A.D. extends it (his career) even more.”
The son of two coaches and a graduate of Cedar Crest High School, Reich had never really considered a stint as an athletic director as part of his career path. That was until the spring of 2023, when Reich, the highly successful head football coach at Wingate University – a private college near Charlotte, North Carolina – was summoned to a meeting with the university’s president and executive vice president.
There was an opening for an athletic director’s position. Reich was offered the job and afforded an opportunity to try it out on an interim basis while remaining the head football coach for the 2023 season. He officially became the Bulldogs’ A.D. following the completion of the season.
“It’s going well,” said Reich. “We have a lot of challenges, like a lot of tuition-driven universities. When I became A.D., there was such a big learning curve. The first six months, it was just minding the store. Now, it’s repeating things, and ‘How can we move things forward?’ It’s been a good new challenge. It may not have been in the plans, but it’s exciting.”
“I miss that personal connection with the players,” he added. “You just don’t have that as the A.D. They see me around, but they don’t know me. They know I’m the A.D., but I’m just the old guy. When you’re the head football coach, you’re the king of the kingdom. You carry some weight. I’m not an ego guy, but there’s something to be said for that. When you’re the A.D., there’s a whole other level to that, but you’re not dealing with the players. Now, that I’ve gotten older, I’m okay with that.”
Reich was the head coach of Wingate’s Division Two football program for 23 years and is the program’s all-time winningest head coach. During his tenure, the Bulldogs compiled an overall mark of 158-92 and a 95-67 record in the Southern Atlantic Conference.
“I try not to look back,” said Reich, a graduate of Gettysburg College. “We won a lot of games. But I sure as heck hope my football legacy here involves more than winning games. We think the guys who were in the program were better people when they left. That’s my definition of success. Leadership is raising the levels of those around you.
“Football is a vehicle we use to enhance lives. Now, athletics are a vehicle for changing lives. An A.D.’s role is to coach the coaches. That’s our culture at Wingate University. That’s what we want to stress at Wingate University. The desire to have a program like that hasn’t stopped.”
After coaching defense at Buffalo University for eight years, Reich went to Wingate in 2001, without the intention of staying, but with an open mind. But not unlike his current situation, fate stepped in.
“I needed a job,” he said. “I thought I’d be here a year or two, get experience, and go back to Division One and maybe something bigger. But when I got down here, it was such a great quality of life. After a couple of years, it was like, ‘I’m not ready to leave. I think we’re turning the corner.’ We were kind of on the edge. I was hooked. I’ve had other offers, but I turned them down.”
But it may have been his formative years at Cedar Crest in the 1980s that originally sent Reich down his path.
“Cedar Crest had a huge impact on me,” he said. “My mom taught at Cedar Crest Middle School, and I really, really liked the teachers I had. I got a good education, and I thought the teachers were good people there. It kind of felt like my family. It was a great place to grow up. After I moved out and moved on, I’d go back and visit my parents, and I thought, ‘This would be a great place to raise my kids.’”
It probably should be mentioned that Reich’s brother Frank is also a coach, most recently the head football coach of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers and Indianapolis Colts.
“I’m totally proud of my brother,” said Reich. “I’ve always, always been my own person. In high school, I never felt like I had to live up to things. I always wanted him to do well. We were on two different paths. He’s helped me along the way. He’s given me some key opportunities and key access. I have zero problems being Frank Reich’s younger brother.”
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