After eight years away, Frank Mello is back at Kelly Walsh.

Mello is the new activities director at Kelly Walsh. His hiring will be formally announced at a press conference today.

"I just love Kelly Walsh High School, the people that work there, the students, the culture, the environment," Mello said via telephone on Thursday. " … There was always that draw to go back there."

Mello worked two stints at Kelly Walsh, one from 1980-93 as a math and computers teacher, football and track coach and assistant principal, and another from 1995-2001 as assistant principal. From 2001-05, he was the activities director for the Natrona County School District.

Most recently, he was the district's transitions administrator, helping students at risk of failing or dropping out of school.

Mello said he liked his job as transitions administrator and wasn't looking to leave, but after former KW AD Ralph Obray resigned last month to take the high school principal's job at Dubois, Mello said he was ready for the chance to go back into an athletics-centric job.

"It was one of those scenarios where something's just missing, and after giving it a lot of hard thought, [I realized] that I missed working at a building level and I missed working at a large high school," he said.

Mello, who has also worked at the former Westwood Elementary, has been in Casper since graduating from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, S.D., in 1980. He is a native of Omaha, Neb.

Contact high school sports coordinator Patrick Schmiedt at (307) 266-0615 or patrick.schmiedt@trib.com. Read his blog at tribtown.trib.com/patrickschmiedt/blog.