Mark Fenske | Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Joel Gesch currently serves as the Athletic Director at Lutheran West, a position he has held for the past 20 years.  Joel has coached football at West for 22 years, including 9 years as the head coach, leading the Longhorns to the Inland East Conference championship in 1985.  Joel has also served Lutheran West as the head basketball coach and as an assistant coach in basketball, baseball, and track. He is also a former high school basketball and track official.

During his tenure as Athletic Director, the athletic program at Lutheran West has experienced tremendous growth in the number of offerings, participants, and facilities.  In the last 20 years, Lutheran West has added five varsity sports and eight new teams.  Over that time West has won 44 conference championships and 12 district titles, and four Longhorn teams have advanced to the state tournament in volleyball, boys’ basketball and golf.  Gesch established the Lutheran West Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997, received Lutheran West’s Wegman Award for teaching in 1997, and was the Metro-West Kiwanis Teacher of the Year in 1998.  He is currently serving as the Treasure of the Patriot Athletic Conference.  In 2009 he was the recipient of the State Award for Meritorious Service from the Ohio High School Athletic Administrators Association. 

Joel is a native of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and a graduate of Concordia University Wisconsin, Concordia University Nebraska, and earned his Master’s Degree from Cleveland State University .  In college he was a four-year starter and former record holder in football, a four-year letterman and MVP in tennis, and was named Concordia Wisconsin ’s Athlete of the Year in 1976.  Joel’s wife Judy is the English Department Chair and a former head volleyball coach at Lutheran West.  Their daughter Kelly (Buchanan) and son Daniel are both Lutheran West graduates.  The Gesches reside in Sheffield Village and are members of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Westlake .