File photo by Travis Rosenau New Ulm Cathedral’s Joe Gillis was unanimously chosen as the 2024 All-Journal Defensive Player of the Year on Friday.

NEW ULM — New Ulm Cathedral head football coach Denny Lux remembers the first time that he met Joe Gillis, the 2024 All-Journal Defensive Player of the Year.

“I met him in the weight room when he was in eighth grade,” recalled Lux. “He asked me, ‘How how do we run football practices?’ And I said, ‘We do a lot of individual work — skill specific work.’ And then he asked me if we do a lot tackling. ‘Do you do a lot of tackling?’

“And I told him that we do a lot of work on form-tackling and technique. And then he said to me that he just likes to tackle. Little did I know that he would set our school record for tackles.”

Gillis, a unanimous selection for the All-Journal Defensive Player of the Year, would set that Cathedral school record for tackles with 421, capped by a senior season that saw him record 147 tackles — with 100 of them solo from his linebacking spot.

Of his 421 career tackles, 282 were solo and he added five fumble recoveries to his resume.

Lux said that about halfway through his freshman season, Gillis took over the starting spot at middle linebacker and never left it.

“It did not take long and we saw our players rally around him even as a freshman,” Lux said. “He was already out leader on the defense.”

When asked what made Gillis so special, Lux said that Gills never saw the blockers trying to slow him down.

“It was like he made the blockers invisible as he went to the football,” Lux said. “As he grew, teams in the area had one or two players to make sure that they kept number 40 out of the plays. But he just seemed to run right to the ball and not visualize anything but the ball. He would beat the blockers to the point of attack.”

Gillis said that from the first time that he met coach Lux until his senior season, he grew as a player and a person.

“Between all of the coaches that have helped me along the way,” he said. “And also all of my teammates — they helped mold me into a better person and football player.”

And the game of football is in Gillis’ DNA.

“My two older brothers John and James played football for Cathedral,” he said. “And my father [Chuck] played high school football in Wisconsin. I grew up in a football family. Every Saturday we watched college games and on Sunday we watched NFL games. Football was all around our house.”

Lux said that Gillis practiced as hard as he played the game.

“He always learned what the other team was trying to do and that was what made him so consistent,” Lux said. “He watched a lot of film and understood his role as a linebacker and where he needed to be on the field against certain offensive sets. That was what made him consistent.”

And Gillis was respected by other teams.

“When we played Hills-Beaver Creek here — and we all know that [HBC] made it to the state title game — Hills was loaded with top-notch players,” Lux said. “But I could tell during and after the game that they had a lot of respect for Joe. I could tell that by the way they were treating him on the field and after the game their players and coaches when they went through the line spent a little bit more time with Joe. It was good to see a team go out of their way to show that respect to him.”

Gillis said that on the field he had a simple objective.

“To focus on your job and do the best that you can,” he said.

Gillis also said that Cathedral football is special to him.

“It is its own little community,” he said. “Coach Lux said that Cathedral football is family and a ton of people love to come to support us. I am proud to have played for Cathedral.”

Gillis said that he has received several offers to play college football.

“But I have not made any decision yet,” he said.