Faculty & Staff Directory

Will Rey has coached basketball for over 40 years at the high school and university DI levels. During his tenure at Northridge, the varsity team owns a 347-162 (.681) overall record and a 162-44 (.786) mark in conference games. Also, the Knights have captured 7 IHSA Class AA Regional Championships, advanced to the state’s “Sweet 16” in 2009 and 2015, won 5 conference championships, six conference 2nd place finishes, and garnered 3 major holiday tournament championships!

In January 2021, the Chicago Sun-Times identified Northridge as one of the Top 50 winningest high school basketball programs in the greater Chicagoland 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.

Coach Rey received Conference Coach-of-the-Year honors in 2007, 2008, 2013, 2017 & 2018, and named IBCA District Coach-of-the-Year in 2009, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2020 & 2022. He is a member of three Halls-of-Fame: Illinois Basketball Coaches’ Assn (2015), Chicago Catholic Athletic League (2017), and Five-Star Basketball Camp (2005). In 2010, he received Sports Faith International’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Before coming to Northridge in 2004, Coach Rey spent 19 years coaching at the collegiate level and 8 years locally at the high school level. As a college coach, he was on the University of Evansville staff and coached teams in the DI NCAA and NIT Tournaments. He also was head coach at Loyola University Chicago and an assistant at Wright State University in Dayton, OH.

A passionate educator, Coach Rey has worked with the industry’s leading distributors of coaching education resources to produce 13 instructional videotapes for coaches and players. In addition, he has presented at statewide basketball coaches’ conventions in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota. A firm believer in the role of competitive athletics in the growth and development of student-athletes, he recently launched a Coaching4Character initiative to help coaches at all levels view sports as a tool for building character.
Born in Havana, Cuba, Coach Rey serves as Northridge’s Athletic Director and teaches Sacred Scripture to sophomores. He and his late wife, Diane, have three children and seven grandchildren.

You can follow Coach Rey on his Twitter page: @coach4character