Gilles

NEW ULM — Stephen Gilles, who has been the assistant girls basketball coach at New Ulm Cathedral, is the new head girls basketball coach for the Greyhounds.

Gilles replaces Dave Wilfahrt, who resigned after 12 seasons as head coach.

“He has been our JV girls coach for the past seven years,” Cathedral Athletic Director Alan Woitas said. “And we are excited about him to have the opportunity to lead our girls as our head coach. He has a lot of knowledge of basketball that he can share with our girls.

“He has a lot of great basketball experiences and background — he has a lot of great relationships in the game of basketball. He can help take our program to the next level. And he has a good understanding of the girls in the program and he is excited about the level of talent that is returning to the program next year — he can elevate the level of play here at Cathedral.”

Gilles is a doctor at the New Ulm Medical Center and was a 1,000-point scorer at Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop and played college basketball at Gustavus Adolphus and was named the MIAC (Minnesota Intercollegiate Conference) Sixth Man of the Year at Gustavus. Gilles said that he is excited about taking over the program.

“I am excited for this opportunity,” he said. “We have a lot of good girls players coming up and there is some talent that is already there in the program.”

Gilles said that from and X’s and O’s standpoint, he wants to focus on man-to-man fundamental defense.

“And offensively, I want to focus on good movement motion offense,” he said. “There are a lot of good kids in our program and I am excited to nurture their development not only as athletes, but also to help them grow and mature to be successful people after they have graduated from Cathedral.”

Woitas said that basketball numbers at Cathedral are very good.

“In grades seven to 12, we will have right around 34 players, which is a really good number for us in the area.” Woitas said. “To be able to have those types of numbers and be able to work with that and good talent in all of those grades too. So we are excited.”

Gilles said that no assistant coach has been named yet as that position was posted Wednesday.