Hunt named interim coach at Bartlett

Brad Hunt has been named the interim head girls basketball coach at Bartlett High School, Hawks' athletic director Jeff Bral acknowledged on Thursday.

Hunt replaces Dave Mello, who stepped down after two seasons to become the new head coach at Fenton.

Hunt, who is also an assistant softball coach at Bartlett, has been a longtime assistant coach in the girls basketball program, spending seven years on the bench next to Denise Sarna, who was the school's only head girls basketball coach for Bartlett's first 17 years of existence. Hunt was Sarna's assistant in 2011-12 when the Hawks finished third in Class 4A, going 32-2 for the season.

Hunt, a West Lafayette, Ind., native and Purdue graduate, has been at Bartlett for 13 years and has coached several sports in some capacity for all of those 13 years.

"It's something I've been looking forward to," Hunt said of his new job. "Hopefully I can do our program right. As an Indiana boy I grew up bleeding basketball and I had the pleasure of working with two outstanding coaches in Denise and Dave that helped build my philosophy and what I want to do. I've also spent a lot of time with the boys basketball coaches, Phil Church and Jim Wolfsmith. I've had a lot of great mentors."

In Mello's two years the Hawks went 34-26, winning a regional title in 2015-16.

Bartlett was 18-6 in its league play this summer and returns one of the top players in the area in Kayla Hare, a Missouri-St. Louis recruit.

"We're going to be fundamentally sound," Hunt said. "I'm a defense-oriented guy and my expectations are that we play defense the best."

Bral said the interim tag on Hunt's job is simply because of the lateness of the coaching change. The girls basketball season begins in five weeks.

"My head is kind of spinning right now but I've got a lot of support," Hunt said. "We're going to be young, fast and talented and I'm excited to get going."