Clay Bayard was introduced as the Silverwolves’ new head football coach Thursday afternoon in a meeting with the team. Bayard teaches at Fremont and was the football team’s offensive coordinator this past season.

“I’m excited, I mean, I really just want to make the community proud, the former players proud,” Bayard said Thursday. “I’ve been involved with every single prior coach. I’m the fourth head coach, I played for (Blaine) Monkres, worked for (Kory) Bosgieter, worked and played for (Ross) Arnold.”

Bayard is a Fremont alumnus and came back to the school this January when a teaching spot opened up after Scott Peery went to Davis High to be the Darts’ new coach.

“The players come first and we need to do everything we can to put them in the best position to succeed on and off the field,” Bayard said.

Bayard played college football first at NAIA Mayville State, then Snow College and Dixie State. He coached at Snow College two separate times (2008-09, 2011-13), then went to Minot State in North Dakota (2014-15), Logan High (2016) and Davis High (2017-20).

Traditionally, Fremont has been one of the top teams in Northern Utah with just six losing seasons since the school opened in 1994.

After a 3-1 start to the 2021 season, Fremont finished with a 4-7 record, losing 31-30 at Kearns in the first round of the 6A state playoffs. School officials removed Ross Arnold as head coach in November.

Bayard is the fourth new head football coach to be hired this offseason in Northern Utah amid a particularly active coaching cycle that normally doesn’t ramp up until January or February each year.

Earlier this week, Carl Harry was named head coach at Clearfield High. Wednesday, Dru Jones was named head coach at Viewmont. Last week, Bear River announced Trampis Waite as its new head coach.