As the final seconds trickled off of the scoreboard at Midland’s Grande Communications Stadium, players for the victorious Pecos Eagles began to grab water bottles, discard the cap, and launch the liquid into the air. The sideline was turned into a water park — an impromptu rain storm to celebrate the Eagles’ 45-0 victory over Levelland in the first round of the 4A Division II playoffs.

The stands were not much different: not only had a large contingent of Pecos’ 10,000-or-so residents made the two-hour trip to Midland on this Friday night, but a fair amount of Pecos ex-pats who now call the Midland-Odessa area home had come to watch. The result was a crowd that surprised even coach Chad Olson.

“As a coach, you don’t really see what’s going on in the stands,” Olson said. “But I turned around, and we’ve got the bottom section of the stadium completely full. That was really cool for our kids.”

You can’t say they hadn’t waited long enough for it — Pecos’ victory over Levelland on that cool Friday night in Midland marked the Eagles’ first playoff victory since 1975.

The bright shining moment for the Pecos community in November was, in large part, fueled by one of the community’s darkest moments 11 months prior.

On January 23, Jonathan Aguilar and Ethan Medina — the Eagles’ starting quarterback and top receiver, respectively — were driving to watch Pecos’ basketball game in Andrews when their truck was struck by an 18-wheeler. Both Aguilar, 18, and Medina, 17, were killed.

While the community mourned, Olson — who came to Pecos from Giddings in 2018 as offensive coordinator for coach Chris Jones — knew that he and his wife Sarah needed to be involved.

“We tried to make everything — every memorial service, every balloon release,” Olson said. “When you go through something like that with kids, they know how much you love them.”

That special bond Olson forged with the Pecos community and the Eagles football players became especially important in July, when Jones retired and Olson was promoted to his first head coaching job.

“Us being there during that time helped the transition process tremendously,” Olson said. “The opportunity to love on the kids at that time really helped the process along. They knew I loved them.”

But it’d take more than a tight relationship between players and coach to turn Pecos around. After all, the Eagles hadn’t put together a winning season since 2013 (or a playoff berth since 2015) and were fresh off a 1-9 mark in 2018. And the 2019 season — and Olson’s head coaching career — didn’t exactly get off to a smooth start.

“One of my good coaching buddies told me that when he had his coaching debut, they fumbled the opening kickoff and were down 42-0 at halftime,” Olson said. “We fumbled the opening kickoff and were down 35-0 at halftime, so I told him that we were seven points better than him.”

The Eagles shook off their 47-0 Week 1 loss to Denver City to get their first win over Kermit the next week. But it was in Week 3 against rival Seminole, a 27-21 loss, that Olson said something clicked, by ditching their spread offense.

“We started getting under center, running a little hybrid Wing-T and Slot-T, and we played our tails off,” Olson said. “We had a chance to win late in the game. I had people coming up to me talking about how that’s the best Pecos game they’ve seen in years. You’re mad as a coach because you want to win the football game, but I felt like we turned a corner.”

The grinding running game suited the Eagles, who leaned on guys like Armando Granado and Abel Velasquez to keep the chains moving behind center Hayden Hopkins. The defense made strides, too, and Olson said it was a testament to the squad’s senior leadership.

“They weren’t the yell-at-you vocal leaders,” Olson said, “but they had the right attitude and the right mindset. The seniors were consistent.”

It all culminated with that historic playoff victory over Levelland, ending 44 years of frustration. The Eagles took early command of the game, taking the opening drive for a touchdown, and it wasn’t long before the coach began to feel like this could be a special moment.

“We got a couple of stops, got an interception, and we’re up 21-0,” Olson recalled. “That’s when you start thinking that this is really going to happen. This Cinderella story about what our kids have been through, and what they’ve achieved. As a coach, you don’t want to get too excited during the game, but for these kids and this community, it was huge.”

The Eagles’ season ended the next week with an area round loss to Glen Rose, finishing with a 7-5 mark — their first winning season since 2013. And perhaps most importantly, the Eagles did right by their departed teammates.