Chanler Buck coached all 10 Powell High School football games last season as the Panthers’ interim head football coach.

If PHS Athletic Director Tim Wormald has anything to say about it, that won’t be the case next season: Wormald wants the interim removed from the title.

On Tuesday, he will recommend to the Park County School District No. 1 board that Buck be named the permanent head coach of the Panther football team, a vote of confidence for the 28-year-old who stepped in last year following the death of longtime coach Jim Stringer. Wormald said that although the board will make the final decision, he’s confident they’ll rule in favor of Buck.

“I chose to offer the head football position to Chanler because I have been really impressed with him as a person and as a coach,” Wormald said. “He has great potential as a coach, and I foresee good things happening with our football program under Chanler’s lead.”

Buck was unsure of his status after the season due to personal reasons, but said on Tuesday that leaving was never really the plan. He came to Powell in 2011, where he began coaching football and girls basketball at the middle school while also serving as an assistant under Stringer at the high school.

“I’ve known this system and the administration ... the people in the community have been behind me through everything,” Buck said. “I’m happy to be in this position. I know these kids well, they’ve come up through me in our system and it helps our program out and it helps me connect with them.”

Under Buck last fall, PHS finished 5-3 in the regular season and bowed out in the first round of the Class 3A playoffs after three straight state championships between 2011-13. Buck and his coaching staff will say goodbye to several talented seniors, but he will now have a chance to start fresh next season and put his mark on the program.

“It’ll be a little bit of a phase of transition, a lot of the foundation that we’ll do will start this summer,” Buck added. “It’s nice to have the successful foundation we’ve had the last few years that coach Stringer’s program has provided for these kids, and now we just have to build off that.”

Buck’s contract will be for one year, and can be renewed annually. He made $6,123 last fall, and is expected to make the same this season.