No stranger to Bison athletics over the years.
By Mike Miazga
Correspondent
Fenton has turned to a longtime familiar face for its new girls basketball coach.
Dave Mello, a longtime multi-sport coach at the Bensenville high school, is the new girls basketball coach at Fenton. He is the school’s third coach since the end of last season, replacing longtime coach Tim Anderson and Megan Andrews, who was hired to replace Anderson.
Mello stepped down from his position as head girls basketball coach at Bartlett High School to take the Fenton position. Mello is a physical education teacher at Bartlett.
“I had been in the Fenton program for 15 seasons prior to going to Bartlett,” said Mello. “When the Fenton job came open for the second time in six months, it was a sign that it was meant to be. If it was anywhere else but Fenton I wouldn’t have considered leaving the Bartlett job.”
Mello also is currently the varsity assistant girls volleyball coach and the school’s head softball coach. He’s been a coach at Fenton since 1995.
“I have a lot invested in Fenton athletics,” he said. “I want to do what I can to build the girls basketball program back up to where it should be.”
Mello said it was tough leaving the Bartlett job. “I teach there so that made it even more difficult of a decision,” he said. “But I had to do what I felt my calling was right now.”
Mello has taught PE and driver’s education at Bartlett since 2002. Mello did his student-teaching at Fenton.
“I didn’t get right into teaching at that point. I worked for a company in Elk Grove first,” he said.
Mello noted he started coaching boys soccer at Fenton in the fall of 1995. He also coached girls basketball and softball at now defunct Driscoll High School in Addison. He made it over to the girls volleyball and softball programs at Fenton around the turn of the century. He became the head softball coach at Fenton in 2008 and was co-head coach of the girls volleyball team with Josh Payton for two years. He’s been with the Fenton girls volleyball varsity team since 2011.
One thing Mello is excited about is this year’s senior players on the Fenton girls basketball team.
“Those seniors were my last freshmen group at Fenton,” he said.
Mello is chomping at the bit to get going and elevate the Bison program.
“We know we play in a tough conference with some private schools, but there is no reason we can’t continue to get better and compete,” he said. “Our number-one goal is to establish a culture here and attract kids who want to be involved with Fenton girls basketball. In our initial meeting, we had 52 girls who had signed up for basketball or expressed an interest. That’s a great start to have that many. We had some T-shirts made up because we want to get that logo out in the school. Some of the girls wore them the next day and there were some staff members who said there was more talk about Fenton girls basketball that one day than there has been the previous four or five years put together. We’re going to get out there and compete and see where it takes us. We’re going to establish this program and get it on track. We’ll worry about the conference and the regional down the road.”
Mello again stressed the importance of being at Fenton. “Since I started coaching there in 1995, it’s a place that holds a lot of importance for me. I have a lot of blue and orange in my closet,” he said. “I do some driver’s ed behind the wheel for them in summer, coach the different sports there and do the summer camps. For me it’s like my second home. My family always comes first, but Fenton is like that second home. I’ve received nothing but great support from the administration and teachers and there has been great buy-in from the athletes there.”
Mello feels success in the program can be achieved. “You hear people sometimes say Fenton never wins. Why can’t we?” he asked. “We’ve had success in softball. We lost 1-0 last year in the regional title game to Whitney Young and had the bases loaded in the top of the seventh against them. That’s a perfect example. We need to get these girls to believe that we can compete and we will. We want the days of, ‘It’s just Fenton again,’ to be over.”
Mello said former Fenton all-state softball player Tara Lawson will be his varsity assistant coach.
“We’re ready to go,” he said. “I can’t wait for practice to start.”
