Photo illustration by Steve Muscatello Joe Fortwengler is this year’s All-Journal Defensive Player of the Year. Fortwengler set a New Ulm record for tackles in a single season with 125.

NEW ULM — At the end of last year’s high school football season, New Ulm head football coach Corey Kneeshaw decided to change his defensive scheme and went to a 4-3 front.

“We had some things happen where we needed more linebackers and we toyed with the idea of who would be our middle linebacker,” Kneeshaw said. “Joe Fortwengler came forward and volunteered and we said we would try it — we would see how things went through the summer (workouts). And we felt good with him being a run-stopper, but the biggest thing we were worried about was how would he do against the pass.”

But Kneeshaw said that his concerns quickly faded as Fortwengler, an All-Big South Conference defensive lineman the season before, made the smooth transition to linebacker.

“You could see during the summer how his athletic ability showed,” Kneeshaw said. “He made all of the drops we were asking for, he made all of the reads, and he quickly developed into that role.”

So much so that Fortwengler this season set a new New Ulm High School single-season record for tackles with 125 (56 solo and 69 assisted stops) and added a sack as he earned the All-Journal Defensive Player of the Year award.

Fortwengler said the change from a down lineman to a stand-up linebacker meant learning how to read different keys.

“After the summer workouts, it got easier for me,” Fortwengler said. “At linebacker, I could actually look in the backfield and read. I could not as a lineman, and there was more action at a linebacker than lineman.”

Kneeshaw said that as the season went on, Fortwengler went through some normal learning curves.

“But he leaned and other teams learned about him,” Kneeshaw said. “You did not see many teams run crossing routes around the middle of the field. That was a direct correlation because of Joe and Brett Bianchi — our two inside linebackers — they put a hurting on players coming through their area.”

Fortwengler and Bianchi combined for over 200 tackles before Bianchi was lost for the season with a neck injury midway through the season.

Kneeshaw said that one of Fortwengler’s strengths was his ability to go from sideline to sideline.

“We asked him to cover the back coming out of the backfield and when they see a big player like Joe, their thought process is that they will be able to take advantage of him,” Kneeshaw said. “But they found out that Joe was a lot quicker than they thought. He is 6-foot-3, 235 pounds, and he has good instincts for the football.”

Kneeshaw said that early on Fortwengler had to trust himself.

“He would ask ‘Am I doing this right — am I making the right reads’,” Kneeshaw said. “We told him just to go for it.”

Kneeshaw said that each and every game, Fortwengler did what was needed to help the team.

“He went out, did what he was asked to to,” Kneeshaw said. “Game in and game out, if you look at the stat sheets, Joe was always right there.”