‘94 Demons ranked tenth greatest all-time DCHS football team

1994 was a banner year for Dodge City High School football.
    The year saw the Red Demons make a run to the sub-state finals before being upset by the Derby Panthers. It was the year Brian Goolsby ran for 1,558 yards and scored 187 points individually (Goolsby was also the team's kicker).
    1994 was head coach Dick Masters' final year at the helm of the Demon football warship. And, unfortunately for Demon fans in more recent years, it was the last year that Dodge has been able to beat the Garden City Buffaloes in the annual Hatchet game.
    After the first quarter of tonight's season opening football game between the Red Demons and Wichita Southeast, the 1994 Demons will be honored as the tenth ranked DCHS football team of all time. G & G Supercenter is sponsoring the ceremony and collaborated with USD 443 in putting together the initiative to track the history of Dodge's best gridiron squads.
    A panel of ex-DCHS and middle school coaches ranked the teams from ten to one. Each home football game for the next two seasons will honor a team in a countdown that will take Demon fans through the tradition-rich history of one of the state's winningest high school football programs.
   
Coach Dick Masters   
    And in 1994, the Red Demons were one of the premiere teams in the state of Kansas. Their misdirection-based Wing-T offense and stifling 4-3 defense was bolstered by Masters' swami-like knowledge of his chosen offensive attack and keen eye for situational play-calling.
    "It was an a great experience to play for a guy like that," Goolsby said. "To play for a coach who coached uncles and cousins and basically my whole family, and for all that [Masters] meant for Dodge City sports made that season what it was."
    "You could call him a guru of the Wing-T," added Andy Smith, a halfback and weakside linebacker for the 1994 team. "He always seemed to know when the defense was ripe for a certain play and would catch them totally off guard. I really respected him for all the tradition he brought to the team."
    Tony Esparza, who earned a starting role on the offensive despite a lack of size, added: "Coaching football defined him. He lived and breathed and slept football and you've got to take your hat off to that kind of dedication. He gave me a shot; I had to be at least a little bit of a question mark for [the coaching staff]."
    Esparza practiced under offensive line coach Ron Hamm, a coach, Esparza said, who did not fool around.
    "He was one that you wanted to get it right on the first drill," Esparza said. "He demanded respect."
    "One thing that was so great about Masters was his ability to recruit and keep such great assistant coaches," said Greg Goff, one of those spearheading the top-ten countdown.
    Pat Lonnburg, a senior outside linebacker on the 1994 team, agreed, saying that then-defensive coordinator Bill Keeley demanded respect and accountability, but at the same time players felt like they could go to him with problems on or off the field.
    "It was an amazing year," Lonnburg said. "It was the first time in my life I didn't dread going to football practice."
    Winning will breed a fun atmosphere for a team, so much so in 1994 that Smith said he remembers constantly laughing out loud on defense before the opposing team snapped the ball.
    "It was almost like we knew what was going to happen before it happened," Smith said. "We knew no one could mess with us."
    That on-field swagger was reinforced by the strong camaraderie that bound the 1994 squad.
    Esparza said that he assumed the role of the inspirational speaker and, at times, teammates rolled their eyes at his productions.
    "I was the one making speeches that began 'We're brothers,'" Esparza said. "It was cheesy, guys would say 'Oh, there goes Esparza again,' but the camaraderie on that team was pretty unique," he said.
    "We were very much a family," Smith said. "It was 'I've got your back and you've got mine. Everybody knew you were never on an island."
   
Stingy on defense
    Smith was a second option in the run-heavy Demon offense, a change-of-pace back that was often the beneficiary of good play calls and defenses loading up to stop Goolsby. He was also a big part of the vaunted defense that allowed only 122 points (roughly 11 per game) all season.
    Against Garden City, Smith had two interceptions, one of which went for an 85-yard touchdown.
    "That was no fault of mine," Smith said. "That was our front four messing [the opposing offense] up. I think we frustrated Masters, though, because he would always let the seniors pick whether we would play offense or defense when we won the coin toss. We would always pick defense. Scoring points was going to happen with Brian [Goolsby]; we wanted to put the fear of God into the other team's offense right off the bat.
    "We had a lot of speed on the outside. With Goolsby in the middle (the star-running back was also an All-Western Athletic Conference linebacker) there wasn't a lot of room for people to go anywhere."
    Smith played two years at Hutchinson Community College before transferring to Kansas State University and earning a bachelor's degree in geography. He is currently the geographic information systems administrator for Ford County.
    Both Lonnburg and Smith pointed to defensive tackle Troy Thomas as one of the defensive standouts of the 1994 team. Thomas, though weighing around 200 pounds, was able to routinely displace the wide loads of heavier offensive lineman that lined up opposite him.
    "We had to paint his facemask every week in practice because he was hitting people so hard," Smith said. "He was an animal."
       
A Dodge star is born
    For all the intimidation that the 1994 Red Demons defense struck into the opposition, the offense was the unstoppable force to the defensive unit's immovable object. They scored 389 points on the season, or 35.6 points per game.
    The feature back and heart of the offense was, of course, Goolsby. The future Wildcat took over every game of the season, with the exception of the sub-state championship at Derby, so much so that honorable mention all-state quarterback Ty Cohoon passed for only 482 yards on the season.
    "Going into games, people thought that Dodge City was all Brian Goolsby," Goolsby said. "But throughout that season, so many people stepped up and showcased that that wasn't really the case. It said a lot about that team."
    Goolsby went on to play at Kansas State University, scoring four touchdowns as a fullback in 1998, the year the Wildcats were just yards away from a berth in the national championship game under legendary coach Bill Snyder. On every home Goolsby carry, K-State fans cheered "GOOOOOOOOL."
    "To have 60,000 people saying your name, it doesn't get any better than that," Goolsby said.
    Masters' mastery of the misdirection play and the talent of the team that fit his schemes so well took the 1994 Demons to heights they have since not been able to climb.
    With so many pieces in place, the Demons made a run in 1994 that has been unmatched since, and for that reason, among others, the ex-Demon coaches committee has ranked them as the tenth best Red Demon football team of all time.
    "I knew during the moments all this was happening that that season was going to be a great story," Esparza said.