advertisement

Bartlett names Mello new girls basketball coach

Dave Mello has had a coaching career that spans nearly 20 years and his newest job is one he calls a, "golden opportunity."

A physical education and drivers education teacher at Bartlett High School since 2004, Mello on Tuesday was named the Hawks' new varsity girls basketball coach.

He takes over the program from Denise Sarna, who retired after this past season as the only head coach the program has had in the school's 17-year history.

"I've been waiting a while for this," Mello said. "I'm taking over what I consider one of the premier public school jobs in the state. Not too many public schools have had the success Denise has had here at Bartlett in the past decade."

Mello, 43, is an Elk Grove graduate who received his college education at Harper Junior College and then Elmhurst College, from which he graduated in 1995. He coached girls basketball for five years at the lower levels and then as a varsity assistant at Driscoll. He has also coached boys soccer, girls volleyball, girls basketball and softball at various levels at Fenton since 2000 and has been Fenton's head softball coach since 2008.

He first taught at Bartlett in 2002-03 but was part of a reduction in force after one year. He taught at Waukegan for one year before returning to Bartlett in the fall of 2004.

Mello will take over a program that went 315-190 in Sarna's 17 seasons, including 20-10 this past season with a regional championship. Sarna led Bartlett to a Class 4A runner-up season in 2005 and a third-place state finish in 2012. The Hawks won seven regional titles under Sarna, who will continue to teach physical education at the school.

"She's one office over from me so I'm going to try to soak up as much knowledge as I can from her," Mello said. "Where she's taken this program from the beginning to now ... I'd be foolish not to learn everything I can from her."

The Hawks had only one senior on this year's team.

"I know we have a lot of good athletes returning," Mello said. "I know most of the girls from classes and seeing games and I want to sit down with the varsity girls and pick their brains and get their input and judge where everybody is at before our camp on June 8. I want to come into that as familiar with the kids as possible."

Mello said his coaching style will be an enthusiastic and high-pressured one.

"I believe in a lot of pressure defense," he said. "We'll be full court pressure defense and we'll create a lot of our offense from our defense. We'll get up and down the floor and look for easy baskets when we can and we'll knock down the 3-pointer when we need to.

"I'm going to be very enthusiastic and I'm excited to get going."

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.