This is it. We’ve made it to the final Who Are Ya of 2025 and what a club to close out the season with! Now, we know who Denton Diablos are but we wanted to catch up with the former champions of NPSL and find out how they plan on conquering USL League Two. Co-founder and friend of Protagonist, Damon Gochneaur, was happy to help end the year on a high note.

Can you remind us when the club was founded and what its mission is?
The club was founded in 2018 with a clear mission to provide opportunities in Denton and Denton County for Coaches, Players, and an entire front office staff to chase the dream of playing, coaching and or working in the beautiful game at the highest levels available. Our goal from the beginning was to be a platform for players, coaches, interns, GM's, etc, to come, develop, learn, grow, and go on to higher levels. We've successfully championed that mission watching coaches move up to USL1, players signed to NISA, MLS Next Pro, USL1, USLC, MLS SuperDraft, and MLS rosters.

Denton's Badge is one of the most identifiable in lower league; who's idea was it? Were there other options when you were choosing your identity? And as the club grows, will there be secondary and tertiary logos?
The name and subsequent badge were ideated by fans, and chosen by fans, in 2018 during the summer World Cup run, prior to our debut NPSL season in 2019. We have our main badge, adorned with our star to represent our 2021 NPSL National Championship, and then all of our reserve and youth teams wear a secondary badge under DIablos Estudiantes with an arms crossed DIablos logo and slightly wider shield shaped badge. Additionally, we use what we call the floating head as an iconic figure within our branding family. Additionally, we have some future brand developments planned that are both in line with the overall brand ethose, while also pushing the brand in new and creative ways.

For the 2025 season, you made the move from NPSL to USL L2, was there a jump up in competition which came with that move? Who are some of your new rivals?
We absolutely saw an increased level of play upon our move to USL2. Their #path2pro is clearly documented and our move paid immediate dividends in the quality of player we were able to recruit for the summer. After admiring the their club from afar for a number of years, it was good to play the Little Rock Rangers, who we sparked an immediate rivalry with despite dropping both games to them last season.

Since we last spoke, the club has opened up a brick and mortar shop - in addition to club wear, what else does the shop sell? How is does that business augment or assist the club?
The Team Shop acts as a hub for our Youth Teams, stocking all gear necessary, as well as items unique to Denton and Denton artisans. We have plans to expand the lineup in the near future and are excited about the ways we can continue to use the Team Shop as a community hub for the beautiful game, while also helping provide some ancillary financial support to club operations.

How did you finish in the league in 2025? As we head into the winter before 2026, will there be any changes you can announce to coaches, fields, squads and leagues? What is something to look forward to in 2026?
We finished in fourth place officially in 2025, after going 7-4-1, and missing out on the playoffs by 4 points. Our four defeats all came at the hands of the two teams who qualified for the playoffs, and we beat the third place team home and away, 1-0 each time. We debuted the youngest player in Mid South Division history in our final game of the season, played over 36 players in our 12 USL2 matches, and set 9 club records in our final game of the season, an 11-0 undressing of the McKinney Chupacabras.

We've been hard at work on the 2026 season and are excited to debut new jerseys, new training gear, new sponsors, while also keeping some surprises up our sleeve regarding venues, players, and coach. We've never been in a better position heading into a season, with a clear plan for how to close the gaps both on the field, and off of it, to compete and find success against the best teams in the USL2.

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