After thirty years of teaching and coaching basketball at Dodge City High School, Dennis Hamilton is retiring. Hamilton is stepping aside from his duties as both a PE Teacher and Head Basketball Coach at the end of the current school year. He will do so as the winningest Head Basketball coach in the 112 year history of Red Demon basketball.

Lady Demons begin postseason

By: John Zetmeir

The Dodge City High School girls basketball team will travel to Wichita Northwest on Thursday night for their sub-state opener in hopes to make it back to the 6A state tournament for the second year in a row.

The Red Demons(6-14) have gotten off to better starts in their last five games.The Dodge City girls have outscored their last five opponents by a combined 64-37 in the first quarter. Now, head coach Kelley Snodgrass wants to see her team take the next step and build off of the strong starts.

“I think we have fixed our starting issue for sure,” Snodgrass said. “They’ve come out with more intensity and we’ve really played better on the defensive end. It’s just getting over that hump of being able to finish in close games.”

Last season the Red Demons had the luxury of playing both of their sub-state games at home. In order to make it to the state tournament this season, Dodge City will have to win road games.

“It’s always good to be at home in front of your home crowd but we’ve actually played better on the road this year,” Snodgrass said. “We’ll just take it one game at a time.”

Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Wichita Northwest.

Demons season ends in Wichita

By John Zetmeir

For the first three quarters of Wednesday night’s first round sub-state match up between the Dodge City High School boys basketball team and Wichita North, the Red Demons looked poised to advance to the second round.

Dodge City did not trail in the game until the final 2 minutes and had four free throw attempts in the final second to try to tie the game but Wichita North stole the 59-57 win by outscoring the Red Demons 20-9 in the fourth quarter.

“We played exceptionally hard again, the group has done it all year,” Dodge City head coach Dennis Hamilton said during a post game radio interview. “You can look at our games and there is possibly two or three where we were just outmanned. Our kids just show a lot of guts and grit and continue to get after it and they did again tonight.”

The Red Demons got off to a fast start by taking an 11-4 lead but whenever Dodge City was able to build a sizable lead, Wichita North chipped away at it.

The Redskins ended the first half on a 9-0 run after trailing 31-20 with 2:11 to play in the first half.

With 7:23 to play in the game, junior Kaden Riekenberg drilled a 3-pointer that put Dodge City up 51-41 but it was over the final 7 minutes that Wichita North became the aggressor.

Wichita North grabbed their first lead of the game just under 2 minutes to play before a steal and layup by junior Luke Gleason gave the Demons the lead with 57 seconds left. A 3-point play by North’s Jonah Carrasco gave the Redskins the two-point advantage with 46 seconds left in the game.

Junior Hunter Heath led Dodge City with 16 points while Riekenberg added nine and senior Thomas Sanchez scored eight. The Red Demons finished 19-of-32 from the field and 13-21 from the free throw line.

Demons remain optimistic

By: John Zetmeir

The Dodge City High School boys basketball team aren’t worried about what their record was through the first 20 games of their season.

As far as the Red Demons (3-17) are concerned, they are 0-0 and have two games potentially against familiar opponents standing between them and a trip back to the 6A state tournament. None of the four teams in Dodge City’s sub-state bracket has a winning record. The best record amongst the group is Wichita North who went 10-10 on the year.

“The grouping of four that we got placed with is something that we feel like we can compete with,” Dodge City head coach Dennis Hamilton said. “Being a three-win team, normally you are getting matched up with a 16-win team or somebody that had a great year.”

On Wednesday night, they will travel to Wichita North for a rematch with the Redskins, who they suffered a 59-48 loss against in the opening round of the Tournament of Champions back in January. In that loss, the Red Demons outscored the Redskins over the final three quarters of the game but falling into an early 21-6 hole was too much for them to climb out of.

“We’ll play with a chip on our shoulder,” Dodge City senior Chris Baker said about the rematch. “We’re going to their place so it would be even sweeter if we get the win there.”

The Red Demons are not looking past Wichita North, but knowing that a third game with Garden City is a possibility with a win on Wednesday is in the back of their minds. If the two Western Athletic Conference teams were to both win their sub-state opener on Wednesday, the Red Demons would travel to take on the Buffaloes on Saturday.

The Buffaloes won both regular season meetings in a pair of close contests.

“It would be great to play Garden in the second round but we’re focused on North right now,” Baker said. “But we definitely want to play Garden next game.”

Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Wichita North.