After 17 seasons, Melaney told the Standard-Examiner on Thursday that he’ll step aside as the school’s boys basketball coach while retaining his title as Fremont’s full-time athletic director.

The change is result of a new Weber School District directive which prohibits athletic directors from “being engaged as full-time coaches” within the district beginning next school year, a district representative told the Standard-Examiner on Thursday.

Fremont and other district schools first heard discussions of the new rule last year, Melaney said.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” Melaney said. “I’m proud of everything that we’ve accomplished. I try not use the word ‘I’ when talking about the program because it was the assistant coaches, the great players — any success that we had was a direct reflection because of them.”

Melaney is one of two district coaches affected by the district’s rule change. Trevor Howell, who serves as Weber High’s athletic director and head girls basketball coach, falls into the same dilemma.

The district’s current coaches doubling as athletic directors at their respective schools were given the option to chose either their AD role or to continue coaching, but not both.

Should both coaches resign, it’ll raise the number of offseason hoops coaching changes to four with the recent departures of Rick Stoeckl (West Field girls) and Cole Carpenter (St. Joseph boys).

But Melaney’s mind is made up. He’ll step aside and pave the way for the school’s next head boys basketball coach after 17 seasons and 20 total in Northern Utah’s high school basketball scene.

Melaney’s final season ended 9-15 overall, bringing his all-time record at Fremont to 230-189 as head coach. Under Melaney, Fremont won the 6A state title in 2020, made five state semifinal appearances, and took five region titles (2010, 2011, 2018, 2019).

“They’ve been just tremendous, outstanding, loyal and faithful,” Melaney said of Fremont. “Now, it’s time for me to maybe sacrifice a little bit of my personal stuff for my family and support Fremont however I can.”

Previous to Fremont, Melaney led Roy High to a state semifinal appearance in 2007 amid a run of consecutive winning seasons. He’d spend one season at Northridge before arriving at Fremont in late 2009.

The coaching search at Fremont is underway, Melaney said, following his team’s postseason basketball banquet earlier this week.

Connect with prep sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net and X @ctbecker.