William John “Bill” Reese Jr. (1910-1971), coached football at Slatington High School between 1940 and 1942, and then baseball from 1956 to 1969.
Slatington head baseball coach Bill Reese with Dick Pritchard, John Babyak and Pete Hertzog; photo credit 1958 Slatington High School yearbook
In early August 1940, just a few weeks before the start of a new football season, the Slatington school board named “Bill” Reese as the new head football coach to replace Fred Maass who had resigned to take the head coaching position at Berwyn High School in Berwyn, PA. (The Slatington News, 1 August 1940; The Morning Call, 30 July 1940)
Born in Plymouth, PA (a borough about four miles west of Wilke-Barre), Reese grew up in Bethlehem where he attended Liberty High School (a 1928 graduate). He played football, basketball and baseball and captained the football and baseball teams.
Reese was a star athlete at Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA, where he was captain of the football team and played center and linebacker. He was a forward and guard on the basketball team, and he held down first base for the baseball team. He graduated in 1936.
In July 1939, he was named “athletic coach and physical education instructor” at Coplay High School in Coplay, PA (about ten miles southeast of Slatington). (The Morning Call, 25 July 1939) At Coplay, he coached the football, basketball and baseball teams.
In between Moravian College and Coplay HS, Reese taught as a substitute teacher and attended Columbia University for his master’s degree.
In 1940, Reese took a step up the coaching ladder when he was signed by Slatington as the new head football coach. For Reese, Slatington was a bigger school than Coplay, and it also offered a higher salary. (The Morning Call, 30 July 1940)
Reese was a pretty successful head football coach at Slatington for the 1940, 1941 and 1942 seasons and head baseball coach in 1941 and 1942.
Slatington coaching football record (10-12-3)
1940 1-6-1
1941 4-4-1
1942 5-2-1
Slatington baseball coaching record (7-8-2)
1941 2-6-2
1942 5-2
After three years at Slatington, in late August 1944, Reese agreed to become the football coach at Sayre High School, a borough in northern Pennsylvania, and a borough quite a bit larger than Slatington. (The Morning Call, 26 August 1943) He also ended up coaching basketball and baseball the two years that he was at Sayre. From what I've been able to discover, Sayre’s 1943 football team finished 7-1 and the 1944 team was 9-0. The 1943-44 Sayre basketball team was Pennsylvania district 4 basketball champions and lost in the state tournament eastern semi-finals.
In May 1944, it was announced that Bill Reese was added to the coaching staff at Reading High School where he would be a health and physical education teacher. He was also on the football, basketball and baseball coaching staffs at Reading HS. (The Morning Call, 26 May 1944)
About ten years later, in May 1955 Reese was back at Slatington. Until he retired in 1969, Reese was, at times, on the football and basketball coaching staffs, and he was the head baseball coach. He also often directed the summer activity programs that the school board financed at Victory Park.
Reese’s overall baseball record at Slatington was 95 - 98 - 3, which was pretty good considering that Slatington was playing in the very competitive Lehigh Valley League with some much larger schools.
Larry Merkle, SHS class of 1964, remembered that Coach Reese was a “good baseball coach” who emphasized “fundamentals” often going over and over small points in practices. He also required players to be properly turned out in their uniforms, “I don’t care how you’re going to play, but you’re gonna look good playing.” Reese was also capable of playing the trickster, like when the team used a “bunt bat” that had been flattened on one-side to allow for easier bunting. The bat had been worked-on in assistant coach Marv Kester’s wood shop. (Marvin Kester, 1934-2007, longtime wood shop teacher, baseball and football coach at Slatington)
In 1971 Bill Reese died in Slatington at his home at 615 West Franklin St, and he was buried in Union Cemetery, Slatington. He was survived by his wife Martha née Davies (1918-2013), a daughter and two sons.