NEW ULM, Minn. – Martin Luther College (MLC) assistant football coach Dennis Gorsline announced his decision to retire, ending a 48-year coaching career in which he coached football, basketball, baseball, tennis, track and field, and wrestling.
 
Gorsline made the decision to retire prior to the program's 2021 spring season because of a desire to spend more time with family, as well as the difficulties of doing the job due to physical ailments.
 
"I wish to thank (MLC Director of Athletics) Jim Unke and (MLC Head Football Coach) Mark Stein for giving me the privilege and pleasure of finishing my career with the sport I love so much," Gorsline said. "I would also like to thank all the athletes for letting me be part of their football experiences."
 
While Gorsline coached numerous sports at various stops during his career, he was most consistently found on the sidelines of the football field.
 
Gorsline's first head coaching position came in 1971 when he restarted the football program at Dr. Martin Luther College (DMLC), where he served through 1984. From 1985-94, Gorsline was the head coach of the football program at Northwestern College (NWC), Watertown WI, before eventually returning to New Ulm as head coach of MLC from 1995-2003.
 
After serving as an assistant coach at New Ulm Senior High School from 2004-12, Gorsline returned to MLC as an assistant in 2016, where he worked with the Knights' wide receivers for five seasons under Stein.
 
Gorsline finished his head coaching career with a record of 123-134-2, and was named Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Coach of the year four different times at three different schools (1984 at DMLC, 1993 at NWC, and 1998 and 2003 at MLC). He was also given the UMAC Lifetime Coaching Award in 2003 to celebrate 30 years of coaching football.
 
After taking over the MLC program in 2015, Stein brought Gorsline back to the program one year later as an assistant and believes Gorsline played an important role in helping build the program into winning back-to-back UMAC championships in 2018 and 2019.
 
"Dennis always gave me ideas, thoughts, or comments every game day that helped me," Stein said. "As a new college head football coach, that was appreciated and needed."
 
Gorsline also helped Stein as a coach who knew how to connect with players.
 
"Dennis is a football coach," Stein said. "The consummate, old school, hard-nosed football coach. What separates coaches is their relationship with players. If a player needed to be pushed, he pushed. If a player needed encouragement, he encouraged. Knowing when to break down and when to build-up is a key to coaching, and Dennis knows how to do that well."
 
Along with Stein, Unke is also thankful for Gorsline's contributions to the program over his career.
 
"We would like to thank Dennis for sharing his passion and knowledge of football with our players and coaches," Unke said. "His knowledge of the game is second to none.  His enthusiasm is contagious.  He will be missed on our fields, and we want to congratulate on him on a long coaching career."
 
After nearly 50 years coaching at three different schools of ministry, Gorsline is perhaps most grateful for the opportunity to see his former players in all of the different sports he coached go forward in ministry and become pastors, teachers, and coaches.
 
"Coaching at the three synod schools allowed me to see that football could have a part in retaining students for ministry," Gorsline said. "I was very proud to see graduates teaching and coaching, as well as young men preaching God's word."
 
To the players he has helped coach as they prepare for the 2021 spring season and beyond, Gorsline has one parting message:
 
"I wish continued good luck to MLC coaches and athletes," he said, "and blessings on your future ministries."