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For several years, the head football coach position at Elgin High School has been viewed as a stepping stone, according to new football skipper Rich Lucero.
He has other ideas, however. Lucero, who was promoted from offensive coordinator May 19, has long-term plans to turn Elgin into a powerhouse program.
“The growth is coming, and it won’t be long before we have two high schools,” Lucero said. “As long as we have that one-horse town, we need to embrace it.”
Lucero served as offensive coordinator for the Wildcats for four seasons before taking over the program. Heath Clawson, the previous Elgin head coach, left for a similar position at Class 3A Woodville last month. Lucero has some big holes to fill before the season opener at Buda Hays Aug. 29. Nonetheless, he and his staff are ready for the task at hand. With four starters projected to return on both sides of the ball, Lucero describes 2025 as a “rebuilding year.” He has not yet determined which offensive or defensive formations the team will use.
“We’ll have to closely look at what our kids can do and pick the scheme that best fits them,” Lucero said. “We’re not going to fit a round peg into a square hole. When you’ve been doing this long enough, you’re not married to one way of doing things. I’ve run the wishbone, flexbone, I, straight I, pro formations, spread—I’ve been able to use all of those offenses. We’ll pick the one that best fits our kids.”
Defensively, Lucero wants the Wildcats to be aggressive. He said he believes in attacking on that side of the ball.
“Defensively, we want to force turnovers and not commit penalties. We want to attack and be aggressive,” Lucero said. “We also want to be physical. I like to bring pressure on defense. If you read and react, the offense dictates how they want to play instead of you dictating the way you play.”
Aside from the Xs and Os, Lucero wants his players to be positively impacted by him and his staff.
“We want to create one of the most incredible and impactful experiences in a young person’s life,” he said. “We’ll love our kids and be positive, but we’ll still hold them accountable. We measure success through academic excellence. The ‘E’ in Elgin stands for excellence.”
Lucero has five principles he wants his players to follow to achieve success: academic excellence, winning, building family, having fun and making an impact.
“We want to win, and you start winning when you start doing the little things, like in the classroom and in the hallway,” Lucero said. “We also want to build family because when those relationships are strong and we truly care about each other, we become strong. We want to have fun because we play and coach because it’s supposed to be fun. If we can live up to those five things, we’ll be successful.”
A native of Bangs and a graduate of Texas Tech, Lucero began his coaching career at six-man program Lohn. He said he wanted to be a football coach when he was just six years old.
“When I started as a head coach at Lohn I didn’t know about six-man football, but I learned from some area coaches who were in the game,” Lucero said. “We were undefeated in district and won a playoff game that year. I was there for one year, then I went to Santa Anna.”
At the time Lucero moved from Lohn to Santa Anna, the latter was an 11-man program. Santa Anna switched to six-man a few years later.
Lucero said a significant moment in his career took place during his tenure at Santa Anna—becoming a certified Spanish teacher.
“Being able to teach Spanish opened doors for me throughout my career,” Lucero said. “There were times where I was hired because I was Spanish certified. I knew that was a great investment.”
After a brief stint at Santa Anna, Lucero coached at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. He also coached at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana, before returning to Texas high school football as an assistant at Katy Taylor in the late 2000s.
Following his time in Katy, Lucero became the head coach at Pharr-San Juan-Alamo in 2012. The following year, he transitioned into a principal role—but something didn’t feel right, he said.
“My daughter noticed that I wasn’t happy and told me that I needed to go back into coaching,” Lucero added. “When she said that, I went back to coaching.”
Lucero returned to coaching at Edinburg Vela and later moved to Corpus Christi Carroll. In 2021, Lucero received the call to come to Elgin.
