Roger Olivas doesn’t need you to tell him where to sit, thank you very much. He’s been coming here, to the coaches office at Eagle Pass High School, for more than a quarter-century, when he became an assistant coach in 1997.

No, wait, back up — he’s known this coaches office since he was an all-district star for the Eagles from 1984 to 1986. He’s well-aware of the floor plan — the head coach’s office flanking the bunker of desks reserved for assistants.

You’ll just have to excuse him for sitting at the wrong desk these days. Force of habit.

“I’m not used to coming into the head coaches office even though I’ve been here for three weeks,” Olivas said. “My instinctive nature is to take me back to my old desk. All my stuff is still over there.”

For the last 18 years, the office has been occupied by the same man — Tom Gonzalez, who led the Eagles to 111 wins and 13 playoff appearances since 2006, making him the winningest and longest-tenured coach in the history of a program that stretches back more than 100 years.

And it was on June 11 that Olivas — the longtime defensive coordinator and Gonzalez’s second cousin — was proverbially given the keys to the big office, taking over as head coach.

He still gets emotional about the job.

“Are you going to make me cry?” Olivas laughed. “You know, you dream of a job like this when you start coaching. And guys like Tom and (Gonzalez’s predecessors) Edward Graf and Okie Villasenor, they always gave me room to grow, gave me a lot of responsibilities. And I worked every day so that someday I’d be ready to take over.

“I mean, it’s some big shoes to fill.”

Levelle Norris understands that big-shoes feeling completely — he’s the new head coach of the Jersey Village, taking over for David Snokhous after a staggering 27 years at the helm. The program only launched in 1973, meaning that Snokhous led the Falcons for more than half of their existence.

When Norris came aboard the staff in 2017, he had candid conversations with Snokhaus about a potential succession plan — Norris has head coaching experience at Presidio and Leakey. Norris said it felt like a when as opposed to an if; the “when” came in April.

Still, it was a seismic moment.

“It was like, wow, this can’t be happening,” Norris said. “It’s a dream finally come true. But at the same time, I was just so appreciative of what coach Snokhous has done for me and my career here at Jersey Village.”

While Olivas and Norris are internal hires, Heath Hohmann’s a bit more of an import. After a pair of seasons as head coach at Skidmore-Tynan down near Corpus Christi, Hohmann is making the move north to central Texas to take over at Holland. It’s a natural fit for Hohmann, a Central Texas guy by way of Llano who became intrigued by the program during his time as an assistant at Liberty Hill.

His challenge: replacing the retiring Brad Talbert, who went a sparking 104-39 in 12 seasons at the helm of the Hornets. It’s that balance that these coaches — the archetypal “guys after the guys” — must strike. How do you take over a program that’s been run so well for so long and still put your own stamp on it?

“All the great programs’ foundation is the same,” Hohmann said. “It’s just a matter of taking that foundation and leading all those ships to the same destination. We’ve tweaked some things, and we’ve put our own stamp on some things, but in the grand scheme of it, it’s no different than what Talbert was preaching.”

At Jersey Village, Norris leveraged his relationship with his predecessor to help smooth the transition.

“I always want coach Snokhous a part of this, and the last month of the school year, every chance I got, I would make him talk to the kids,” Norris said. “So it was like he never left. And to this day, I told him, you can come to practice, you can come to any ballgame you want.”

Hohmann has an additional challenge in being a newcomer to the program: ingratiating himself to the community. Holland is a town of 1,075 residents, and he intends to make sure they get to know him.

“I go to as many of the spring baseball and softball games that I can, the Little League games too,” Hohmann said. “We want to be here and be a part of the community. And, you know, we’d like to stay here as long as they let us.”

Each coach said they’re excited for the opportunity to take over for a local legend. But each coach also admitted that yes, there’s pressure to fill the big chair.

“I don’t know that there’s any more pressure taking this job than any other job,” Hohmann said. “We get paid to win. Not only the success that Brad had with football, but as a leader of all the programs, you’ve got to feel pressure, and that’s what makes us rise to the occasion and brings out the best in us.”

Down in Eagle Pass, Olivas knows the community as well as anyone — and because of that, he knows he’ll be under a microscope.

“I think the pressure we have is molding these boys into men,” Olivas said. “But we all know what the expectations are. We haven’t lowered our standard, we’re not going to lower our bar. We owe it to our community and we owe it to our players.”

In early June in northwest Houston, there was a retirement party held in David Snokhous’ honor. It was a party nearly three decades in the making, with dozens of former Jersey Village players, students and coaches coming by to offer thanks and well-wishes to their coach.

Of course, Norris was there. And as the party wound down, he caught himself in a moment of introspection.

“You see all these folks from Jersey Village, and you say wow, he’s been here 27 years,” Norris said. “He’s made an impact on all these people’s lives. Can I do the same?

“And yes. Yes. I can do the same.”