Coaches

Will Rey

Year Inducted: 2015

Category: Coach

Schools / Organizations: (Niles) Northridge Prep High School

(Chicago) Loyola University

Biography: As head coach at (Niles) Northridge Prep High School for the past 20+ seasons, Will Rey has helped establish a standard of basketball excellence with the Knights. Despite typically competing against schools with larger enrollments, the Knights have amassed a 395-180 (.687) overall record and a sparkling 182-46 (.800) mark in conference games since Coach Rey’s arrival in 2004.

Moreover, Northridge teams captured eight IHSA Class 2A Regional Championships in Coach Rey’s tenure, including a school-record trifecta in 2008, 2009, and 2010. The 2019-20 team’s 27-7 overall tally set a school record for wins in a season, while the 2008-09 team compiled a school-best 15 consecutive victories and a “Sweet 16” finish in the IHSA Class 2A high school tournament. The Knights made their second “Sweet 16” state tournament appearance during the 2014-15 season. In 2017-18 and 2022-23, the Knights were undefeated conference champions (12-0), a school-first.

Under Coach Rey’s experienced leadership, the Knights have garnered six conference championships, seven conference second-place finishes, and five large-school holiday tournament championships. The 2011-12 team finished undefeated at home (13-0) for the first time in school history. The veteran coach received IBCA District Coach-of-the-Year Awards in 2009, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023; he was named conference Coach-of-the-Year in 2007, 2008, 2013, 2017, 2018, and 2023.

In January 2021, the Chicago Sun-Times identified Northridge as one of the Top 50 winningest high school basketball programs in the Chicago area during the previous decade; Northridge was ranked the area’s 31st winningest program with a stellar 206-86 (.705) record. During the 2021-22 season, Coach Rey eclipsed the 400 career wins milestone as a high school head coach.

Before arriving at Northridge, Coach Rey spent 19 years coaching college basketball. In 1985, he joined Jim Crews at the University of Evansville. He helped the Purple Aces win two conference championships, make 2nd round appearances in the Division I NCAA and NIT tournaments, compile a 35-game home winning streak, and attain a Top-25 national ranking! At Evansville, Coach Rey helped recruit and develop two of the nation’s leading scorers: Marty Simmons (Utah Jazz) and Scott Haffner (NBA Heat and Hornets). He also recruited and coached Dan Godfread (NBA Timberwolves and Rockets).

In 1989, Loyola University-Chicago called on Coach Rey to return home and turn around their program. As head coach, the Ramblers defeated national programs such as Notre Dame, Purdue, Wisconsin, Butler, Dayton, Northwestern, and St. Louis during his five years. After Loyola, he coached at Saint Mary’s University and assisted former UCLA & Indiana coach Ed Schilling at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. During Coach Rey’s tenure at Wright State, the Raiders produced back-to-back 18 and 17-win seasons highlighted by upset wins over 8th-ranked and eventual NCAA Champion Michigan State and a thrilling overtime victory over the 20th-ranked and undefeated Butler Bulldogs at historic Hinkle Fieldhouse.

From 1977 through 1985, before moving to the collegiate coaching ranks, Coach Rey coached basketball at three Chicago-area high schools: Gordon Tech (now DePaul Prep), Crete-Monee, and Fenwick. As an assistant to former long-time NBA coach Bob Ociepka at Gordon Tech, the Rams made one IHSA 2A “Elite 8” appearance and two “Sweet 16” appearances. Coach Rey also led the lower-level Rams to a 53-13 (.803) overall record, two Chicago Catholic League Championships, and one second-place finish.

Coach Rey received the highest honor available to an Illinois high school basketball coach when the IBCA inducted him into their Hall-of-Fame in 2015. Two years later, in 2017, the Chicago Catholic League also placed him into their Hall-of-Fame. A lecturer and instructor at the nationally renowned Five-Star Basketball Camp for 30 years, Coach Rey was also inducted into the Five-Star Basketball Hall-of-Fame with basketball coaches and players such as Bob Knight, Chuck Daly, Hubie Brown, Michael Jordan, Isiah Thomas, Christian Laettner, and Patrick Ewing. In February 2010, Coach Rey received Sports Faith International’s Lifetime Coaching Achievement Award.

A passionate educator, Coach Rey has produced 13 instructional DVDs for basketball coaches and players sold worldwide by three of the nation’s leading producers of coaching education resources: Championship Productions, Breakthrough Basketball, and Sysko’s. In addition, he has spoken at scores of basketball coaches’ clinics and seminars around the country, including the highly regarded PGC/Glazier Clinics, the Medalist Basketball Clinics, and state association coaches’ conferences in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota. Coach Rey is a frequent guest on national coaching podcasts and “Morning Air with John Morales” on Relevant Radio, where he shares his philosophy on Coaching4Character, an approach to using the competitive athletic team experience as a means of helping student-athletes grow in virtue and character.

Along with his duties as Athletic Director and Varsity Basketball Coach at Northridge, Coach Rey serves on the school’s Administrative Council. Born in Havana, Cuba, and raised in Chicago, he earned a bachelor’s degree in the Social Sciences from Northeastern Illinois University and a master’s in Guidance & Counseling from Concordia University-Chicago.