Hank Carter is no longer the interim head football coach at Lake Travis High School. The job is officially his, the school district announced this afternoon.

Carter, who has served as defensive coordinator for Chad Morris for the last decade including the last two seasons at Lake Travis, takes over for his mentor, who left Lake Travis last week following two perfect seasons. Morris is now the offensive coordinator at Tulsa.

“I am honored to have been selected as head coach,” said Carter through a district news release. ” I thank our high school principal—Kim Brents, our Director of Extracurricular Programs—Gary Briley, and the District administrative team for expressing their confidence in me.  I am also appreciative of our players, coaches, and parents, our football booster club, and the entire Lake Travis community for their support of me and our program.”

“We are so fortunate that we had such a strong and credible candidate inside our own program,” said LTISD Deputy Superintendent Dr. Diane Frost in the same release.  “Our football program has reached incredible heights, and for the past two years, Hank has been a key contributor to that success.  Naming him as our head coach and athletic coordinator reflects our District’s philosophy of promotion from within when employees have demonstrated excellence and loyalty to our District.”

This is Carter’s first head coaching job. After playing for Morris at  Eustace High School and attending UT-Tyler, Carter joined Morris’ coaching staff in 2000. The 33-year-old has been Morris’ defacto apprentice for the last few years, the Cavaliers’ former coach said a few weeks ago.

“I have all the confidence in the world in Hank, and he’s been prepping for a moment like this for 10 years,” Morris said.

Carter is the school’s sixth coach since the 1995 season. He also assumes the role of athletic coordinator. He is the first head coach since Keith Tuck in 1995 to be elevated from assistant to head coach for the program.