Interim coach Aaron Fearne will lead Charlotte 49ers basketball for 2023-24 season
Charlotte 49ers fans won’t have to wait any longer who will lead their men’s basketball program.
On Thursday evening, 49ers athletic director Mike Hill announced that interim coach Aaron Fearne will remain in that role for the 2023-24 season.
Fearne was named Charlotte’s interim coach after Ron Sanchez resigned to take an associate head coaching job at Virginia earlier this month. Hill said the school decided on Fearne after what he described as “an accelerated (coaching) search at an unconventional time of year.” Many college teams have begun summer workouts, or soon will, and high school and travel recruiting is underway.
“Aaron has the tools required to lead this program,” Hill said in a statement, “and our basketball team believes in him. He has considerable experience as a head coach and his leadership ability has been on full display during a very challenging time. He is widely respected in basketball circles, both college and professional.”
Fearne has been with the 49ers for five seasons and was promoted to associate head coach before the 2022-23 season. Prior to working at Charlotte, Fearne spent nine seasons as a head coach and eight as an assistant in the National Basketball League in Australia. He led the Cairns Taipans to the NBL finals two times and was named coach of the year in 2015.
At Charlotte, Fearne has helped to bring in Conference USA’s top-ranked recruiting class during the past three years.
Charlotte moves to the American Athletic Conference next season after winning 22 games last season — the most in 22 years — and winning the CBI Championship, the program’s first postseason title.
The top two players from that team, however, have transferred. Guard Brice Williams is now at Nebraska. Center Aly Khalifa is at Brigham Young.
“I’m prepared to lead this program,” Fearne said in a statement. “We are committed to bringing a tough, competitive brand of basketball to the American Athletic Conference. We will play with pace, attack the glass, and apply pressure to our opponents in all phases of the game.”
This story was originally published June 15, 2023 at 6:23 PM with the headline "Interim coach Aaron Fearne will lead Charlotte 49ers basketball for 2023-24 season."
