Joe Tanis

Assistant Coach, Football
Telephone: 906-227-2040
At NMU Since 2009

Joe Tanis enters his first season on the Northern Michigan University football coaching staff.  He will coach the tight ends and full backs.  Tanis will also be the video and computer coordinator for the Wildcats.

He was the assistant head coach/defensive coordinator at Galesburg-Augusta High School from 2007-09. Tanis was a student-assistant football coach at Olivet College from 2005-09 where he helped lead the Comets to its first Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) championship in over 30 years in 2007.  That year Olivet qualified for its first ever NCAA Division III playoff appearance. At Olivet, Tanis coached at one time the wide receivers, linebackers and the defensive backs.  He has coached with the Kalamazoo Xplosion (2007-08) as the assistant to the defensive coordinator.

Tanis graduated from Olivet College with a bachelor’s degree in history where he was a letterwinner in football.  He graduated from Grandville High School in 2001.  Tanis married Jilanna in May of 2009.