Athletics Director. Championship-winning varsity basketball coach. Interim Director of Upper School. Academic Dean. There’s only one person in Westridge’s history who has ever filled each of these positions: current Director of Athletics Coach Melanie Horn.

Joining Westridge in 1995, Coach Horn served as a Physical Education teacher and Physical Education Department Chair. At the time, she was working toward her administrative credential from the University of California, Irvine. Because of that pursuit, when there was a sudden absence in a role then referred to as an “academic dean,” the head of school at the time, Ms. Fran Scoble, asked Coach Horn to fill in.

Overseeing AP tests, grade-level meetings, and more, Coach Horn proved herself as a worthy administrator. Again, when Westridge had a sudden need to fill a leadership position—this time, Director of Upper School—Coach Horn found herself in the interim role.

Simultaneously coaching varsity basketball, Coach Horn led the Tigers to a Prep League championship in her first year coaching. Under her guidance, the team also competed in the state playoffs for the very first time.

Ultimately, though, Coach Horn’s calling was toward women’s athletics, and she stepped into the role of Athletics Director in 2003, a natural fit, as she immediately identified ways to improve the athletics department. She felt she had “an opportunity to quickly improve the athletics department.” To her, that task included ensuring the organization of her athletics program, advocating for Westridge to continue competing in the Prep League, and “raising the profile of athletics and trying to be more competitive across the board.”

With the support of the greater Westridge administration, Coach Horn added Westridge’s girls’ varsity golf program (which has notably earned several league championships in recent years) in 2003, a varsity lacrosse program in 2006, and most recently, in 2023, the girls’ varsity flag football team as soon as the sport became CIF sanctioned.

Though launching another fall sports program looked difficult in light of the athletics budget, Coach Horn said, “We’re doing it anyway. We’ve got to have flag football.” Two years later, Westridge is still the only team in the Prep League with a girls’ flag football team.

Throughout her tenure at Westridge, feminism and empowering girls through athletics contexts have been Coach Horn’s priorities. A woman athlete herself, Coach Horn started playing sports when female athletics were a more contentious subject. As a basketball player at the University of California, Los Angeles, Coach Horn was “one of the first two female athletes to receive a full athletic basketball scholarship to UCLA,” according to Head of School Ms. Andrea Kassar’s email announcing her retirement in May 2024.

Coach Horn’s support of women’s athletics is why she’s found so much joy in working at Westridge—the institution and she are mission aligned. “Unapologetically, we are advocating for women,” she said. As Alice Lee from Williams College will succeed Coach Horn this summer, the retiring Athletics Director wants to be remembered in a feminist light, too. She wants to be remembered “as somebody that was an advocate for girls, and in particular for girls in sport. For somebody who tried to infuse team spirit and team pride.”

Looking back on her time at Westridge, there is no one specific memory that stands out to Coach Horn—there are simply too many memories of overwhelming excitement and spirit to count. She thinks of both the CIF championships she experienced, but also simply “watching the students grow through their sport.”

In the weeks leading up to her retirement, the Westridge community has taken every opportunity to champion the woman who championed Westridge athletes for the past three decades. After school on Wednesday, May 14, community members assembled to celebrate both her and Middle and Upper School Dance Teacher Kashmir Blake for exceptional service to the school.

During the schoolwide spirit assembly on Wednesday, May 21, students and faculty packed the gymnasium in bright shades of green—all for Coach Horn. Students gave speeches about her importance in their athletic careers, and Coach Horn dropped a mock-championship banner with her face on it. The best part of this assembly? It was all a surprise to her.

Honoring her legacy of 30 years at Westridge, the school named Coach Horn an honorary alumna and announced that the basketball court inside the Hoffman Gymnasium will be named the “Melanie Horn Basketball Court.”

In retirement, Coach Horn hopes to compete at the American Kennel Club National dog competition (she and her dog Mav are just one point short of qualifying now, with plenty of time to get there!). She also hopes to travel the world—visiting New Zealand, seeing the Aurora Borealis in Finland, and returning to places she once loved to visit.

A tiger for life, Coach Horn said, “I hope I’ve made a difference in people’s lives.” Emphasizing her job’s dedication to women’s athletics, she said, “I hope they know that I am an avid supporter of the girls here, in particular, in my role as athletic director. I love watching the Tigers, and I love supporting them.”