A family love affair: Football runs deep in the Goss family
LANCASTER – Lancaster football runs deep for the Goss family, dating all the way back to the 1950s.
It all started with Dan Goss, who graduated in 1952 and played for the Golden Gales as a 170-pound all-state nose guard. His son, Mont, followed in his dad’s footsteps, graduating in 1990, and is now an assistant coach on the Gales’ staff.
Mont and his wife Cindy have three sons, Isaac, Shea, and Xavier, and all three have followed in the grandpa’s and father’s footsteps playing for the Golden Gales. Isaac graduated in 2016 and played tight end, Shea graduated in 2018 and was a running back, who gained more than 1,000 yards rushing his senior season, and the youngest, Xavier, is a senior running back and a team captain for Lancaster.
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The entire family loves football and they bleed Blue and Gold. They are Lancaster through and through, and it all started with Dan. With Xavier’s senior season fast approaching, it is bittersweet for the family, especially for Dan
“This has been the thing that has kept my wife and I going, just watching these boys play,” said Dan, who is 89 years old. “We are so proud of all three of them. It will be sad when it’s over.”
It is only fitting the Gales will play their final regular season game against Newark because all five of the Goss men will have ended their last regular season game against the Wildcats.
Dan has fond memories of his last game against Newark.
“Lancaster had not beaten Newark in 15 or 16 years when we played them and they were favored to beat us easily, but we ended up winning,” said Dan, who practiced at Rising Park and played at the old North Field in Lancaster. “The craziest thing is when we were leaving the parking lot at White Field, they were so mad that we beat them, they were trying to tip the bus over.”
Football forged the family together
“It has been a blessing to have all three of the guys want to play the game that we love so much as a family,” Mont said. “It started a long time ago. We just love this game. I tried to hold them out for as long as I could, but they weren’t having it. They wanted to play, and just to have them engaged in the game and enjoy it as much as I did and as much as my dad, it has been really special.”
As the youngest child, Xavier, grew up watching his dad coach and his older brothers play. They were his idols, and he wanted to be just like them.
“I thought football was the greatest thing in the world when I was little, and the one game I remember was Isaac’s senior year and the double overtime game against Gahanna,” Xavier said. “Isaac caught a pass in overtime, and even though I was really young, I just kind of took in the moment, and thought, wow, that is going to me someday. That was special, and then watching Shea rush for so many yards with all these dudes on his back. I thought it was amazing and just seeing him put everything he had into it, made me want to do the same.
“Dad didn’t let me play until I was in sixth grade, but I remember when I was little, putting an air mattress on the floor watching football, and acting like was jumping over the pile for a touchdown trying to emulate what Shea and Isaac were doing out here. I always wanted to play.”
Cindy said having a husband coaching and three boys playing football would get hectic in the fall, especially when Isaac and Shea were playing college football and trying to get to both of their games, but she would trade those memories for anything, as well as gaining lifelong friends through the game of football.
She fully understands that football helped engrain a work ethic and determination that has carried over to her sons’ adult lives.
“As a mom of three boys, I think football has been incredibly helpful to craft them as men and have them go through trails and go through seasons that weren’t so great,” Cindy said. “The hard work that has to go into it to be good and to be great, there is no other sport that I’ve seen like football that’s like the crucible of creating men, so I am grateful that they’ve had that opportunity.”
Brotherly love
All three boys have carved their own path playing for the Golden Gales. Isaac seemed to be more serious, and the coaches could always count on him to do his job, while Shea was a grinder and ran hard whenever he had the ball in his hands. Xavier is a hard worker, who always has a smile on his face. All three were great leaders, and each had their own way of showing it, but more than anything, they were the embodiment of hard work in the weight room, on the field, and in the classroom.
They were and are football players, but the game didn’t define them as people. They used football to better themselves, to become more disciplined, and to understand it takes hard work to be successful.
Like most brothers, they love each other and will defend the other fiercely, but make no mistake, they are competitive and always want to one-up the other, especially Isaac and Shea, because they are so close in age.
Talking with each of them, though, the thing that stands out is the respect they have for each other.
“Being the oldest and being the oldest to my younger brother Shea, he definitely always made me a better player and better person,” Isaac said. “However, I had to keep up and work as hard as I could to not let Shea trip me up in the weight room, doing sprints, or whatever it was, I was always trying to be better than Shea. He was my younger brother, but he was a tough son-of-gun.”
Shea added, “I always knew we were going to play football as far back as Isaac and I could remember. We always had a football in our hands and were always playing in the yard, in the pool, breaking things in the house, seeing dad coach and just having pictures of football stuff in the house. It was ingrained into us.”
Now, watching Xavier play his senior season, both Isaac and Shea are savoring every minute. Both are proud of the path that Xavier has carved out for himself.
“It’s really cool to see (Xavier) create his own story because our story was different,” Shea said. “it’s been really cool to see him completely craft his own experience and to see him lead this team this year and see the success that he is having.”
Leaving a first-class legacy
As a father and a coach, Mont couldn’t be prouder of how each of his three sons has represented themselves, not only as football players but as people.
“The work they put into it, it’s been allowed, because when they are in sports, we want them to be doing everything they can to better themselves and better the team,” Mont said. “The expectation is if you are going to do something, you are going to do it to the best of your ability, and that means you are going to do all the extra things and all those things that enable you to be successful. All three of them embraced that, and they shared that with their team, and each one of them in their own way has brought their teammates along to a higher level of work ethic. That’s important to us as a family.”
When the Gales play at White Field against Newark on Friday night, it will be a little emotional. It won’t be Xavier’s last game because Lancaster will play at least one more game in the playoffs, but when he does play his final game, it will mark the end of three generations of Goss men playing Lancaster football.
Asked how he would feel when Xavier plays his last game, Mont almost didn’t want to go there because he didn’t want to get choked up. Instead, he put his coaching hat on.
“Each one has been emotional, but we just take it one game at a time,” Mont said. “We will celebrate when it is all over. I can’t be too emotional because I have things to take care of coaching-wise. We are just here to support them all the way to the end.”
It may be the end of the Goss men playing football for Lancaster, but the legacy they leave behind and the memories they have created will last a lifetime.
Tom Wilson is a sports reporter for the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette. Contact him at 740-689-5150 or via email at twilson@gannett.com for comments or story tips. Follow him on Twitter @twil2323.
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: A family love affair: Football runs deep in the Goss family
