Head Coach Joe Fincham bio
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Kelly Cummings joined the Tigers' coaching staff in 2000 and has led the unit to the top spot statistically in the North Coast Athletic Conference in three of his five years at Wittenberg. Dozens of Wittenberg student-athletes have garnered all-conference honors under his direction as the Tigers have won more than 75 percent of their games.
Cummings began his collegiate career at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M, before transferring to Eastern Kentucky University, from which he received a bachelor's degree in history in 1993. He followed his collegiate career with a free-agent tryout for the NFL.
After four seasons at Denison, where Cummings served as linebacker coach for one year and defensive coordinator from 1997-99, Cummings stayed in the NCAC and helped the Tigers to back-to-back conference titles in 2000 and 2001. Before working with the Big Red, Cummings was an assistant coach at Madison Central High School in Richmond, Ky.
Cummings and his wife, Kate, who is the head women's basketball coach at Ohio Dominican University, reside in Hilliard, Ohio, with their daughters, Allyson and Bailey.
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Al Logan became Wittenberg's offensive coordinator in 2004, and the offense he installed that year extended the Tigers' run as one of the most prolific units in all of small college football.
Wittenberg averaged more than 40 points and 450 yards per game in 2004, ranking among the best in the NCAC and NCAA Division III. The Tigers were tremendously balanced, with an almost perfectly even distribution of yards between the passing game and the running game.
Logan was a four-year letterwinner for Muskingum College in football as an offensive lineman and in wrestling, and he was team captain in both sports. As a wrestler, Logan won more than 100 matches in his career and won the Ohio Athletic Conference championship in 1981 and 1982. He was selected Outstanding Wrestler of the 1982 OAC championship meet and was a two-time All-America in the sport. He graduated from Muskingum in 1982.
Logan started his coaching career at Miami University in 1982 as an assistant wrestling coach. After earning a master's in physical education from Miami, he served as defensive backs coach and assistant track and field coach at John Carroll University in 1983-84.
From 1984-98, Logan held numerous jobs at The University of South, serving as head coach of the football, wrestling and track and field teams at various times. While there, Logan coached seven NCAA track and field qualifiers, three of whom went on to earn All-America honors, and 76 all-conference athletes. He was named Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Football Coach of the Year in 1991 and 1992, and he was defensive coordinator for teams that won conference titles in 1990 and 1992 while ranking in the top 10 nationally in total defense.
In 1998, he moved to Davidson University. In 1998, Logan implemented the spread option offense that helped Davidson to a school-record five straight winning seasons (1998-2002). He was offensive coordinator for two seasons and recruiting coordinator from 2000-03.
Logan and his wife, Patti, have two sons, Nick and Cam. They reside in Springfield.
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Former standout defensive back Andy Waddle returned to his alma mater in 2005 to take over coaching the defensive backs.
Waddle played for two North Coast Athletic Conference championship teams in his three years at Wittenberg after transferring from the University of Findlay in 1999. At Findlay, Waddle was red-shirted during an NAIA national championship season in 1997 and was a starter for the Oilers the following year. In 2000, he tied an NCAA record for blocked punts in a game in his first appearance in the Red & White, turning away three Urbana attempts in the season opener.
Waddle earned first-team All-NCAC honors in football and track and field during his collegiate career, and fittingly he will also serve as an assistant coach with the Tiger track and field program.
After graduating from Wittenberg in 2003 with a degree in sociology, Waddle spent one season at Mansfield University (Pa.), as the defensive backs coach for former Tiger defensive coordinator Chris Woods. He acted as a staff liaison to the university's athletic trainers and also learned the recruiting ropes while helping the Mountaineers to an 8-3 record, the program's first winning mark in nearly 30 years.
In 2004, Waddle was the defensive backs coach at Maryville College (Tenn.), and once again the program and its defensive unit made a dramatic improvement. Maryville won as many games in 2004 as it had won the previous three seasons combined, and the defense made a 17-point, 140-yard per game improvement. Waddle served as Maryville's video coordinator.
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Mark Ewald has been coaching Wittenberg's receiving corps since joining the Tiger coaching staff in 1996. He has become a key contributor to one of the top offensive units every year in Division III.
Almost every Wittenberg receiving record has been broken during Ewald's coaching career at the university. Among his proteges have been all-conference standouts Michael Aljancic, Skip Ivery, Russ Fedyk and Jered Glover. The Tigers' passing game has regularly ranked among the best in the NCAC and all of NCAA Division III.
Ewald is in his 24th year as a football coach. Before joining the Wittenberg staff, he was an assistant coach at nearby Trotwood-Madison High School after three years as head coach at Carroll High School in Dayton. He also coached at Chaminade-Julienne High School for several years. Ewald resides in Kettering, Ohio with his wife, Diane, and three children, Nicholas, Jacklyn, and Luke David.
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Rob Linkhart joined the Tiger football coaching staff in 2001 coaching the defensive backs, and he moved to running backs in 2003.
As the running backs coach in 2003, Linkhart helped develop Raymar Hampshire into one of the top players in the NCAC after two seasons as a fullback. Then in 2004, Linkhart guided Tristan Murray to a season with more than 1,300 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns in his first season in the Red & White.
A 1999 Wittenberg graduate with a degree in biology, Linkhart was a three-year letterwinner at defensive back and played on three NCAC championship teams. A native of Springfield, Linkhart resides in his hometown, and he works as a teacher at Northeastern High School.
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Former all-conference punter Matt Gallatin returned to his alma mater in 2004 to take over coaching the program’s kickers and punters, and in 2005 added the responsibility for coordinating all special teams. It is his first collegiate coaching assignment after coaching basketball and football at the middle school level for three years in Sandusky, Ohio.
In his first season as a coach with the Tigers, Gallatin worked closely with the top punter in the NCAC, Jacob Thomas, and significantly improved Wittenberg’s special teams performance in all phases. As a unit, Wittenberg’s punters led all of NCAA Division III in average.
Gallatin, a 2001 Wittenberg graduate, was a four-year letterwinner and three-year starter for the Tigers, and he played on teams that won four consecutive North Coast Athletic Conference titles, the first class in school history to accomplish that feat. He led the conference in 2000 with a 37.6 yards per punt average. He received his Master of Education degree from Ashland University in 2005.
Gallatin resides in Springfield and is employed by the Springfield City School District as a high school Special Education teacher.
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Former Wittenberg All-America offensive lineman Brad Kassner is back in the fold in 2005, this time mentoring the team's defensive lineman.
Kassner earned his degree in physics from Wittenberg in May 2005, and he is staying in Springfield to help the Tigers reach the heights he experienced as a freshman in 2001 when the team won a conference title and advanced to the NCAA Division III quarterfinals and 2002 when the team made its fifth straight appearance in the national tournament before bowing out in the second round.
Kassner was a four-year letterwinner, three-year full-time starter and two-year captain, the rock of an offensive line that produced three 1,000-yard rushers in his four seasons. He was named first-team All-NCAC in 2002, 2003 and 2004, first-team All-North Region in 2003 and 2004 and All-America twice, honorable mention in 2003 and third-team in 2004.
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Chuck Howard joined the Wittenberg football coaching staff in 2005 after a tremendously successful coaching career in his native Texas.
Now a high school geometry teacher in the nearby Greenon Local School District, Howard will pitch in as a defensive assistant for the Wittenberg program. He was most recently defensive coordinator for the football team, girls track and field head coach and girls athletic coordinator at Bandera High School in Bandera, Texas. He led the track team to a district championship in 2004.
Howard earned his bachelor's degree in 1987 from Abilene Christian University and then spent four years at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas. As the team's linebackers coach, he helped Howard Payne to a conference championship in 1991. That year, Howard also earned his teacher's certification from Howard Payne.
Since then, Howard has taught and coached in several different school systems, helping four different high schools to the state playoffs during his career. He now resides in Enon with his wife, Brandy, and their children Connor and Cidnee.
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New to the Wittenberg football coaching staff in 2005, Tom Mescher is working with the tight ends for the Tigers.
A native of Versailles, Ohio, where he played football under legendary high school coach Al Hetrick, Mescher earned his bachelor's degree in elementary education with an emphasis in social studies from Findlay University in 1997. He also had a minor in history. While a student at Findlay, Mescher was a member of the varsity basketball team, president of Sigma Pi Fraternity and also served as a student assistant coach for the men's basketball and softball teams.
Currently a teacher in the Southeastern Local School District in nearby South Charleston, Mescher has coached softball, basketball and football at the high school and middle school levels for eight years. Most recently, he was the offensive coordinator for Miami View Junior High School in South Charleston. For the three years prior to that, Mescher was the defensive coordinator/assistant head coach for the Southeastern High School varsity team.
Mescher resides in Springfield with his wife, Kelly, and daughters Elise and Isis.
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