Former Zillah boys basketball coach Mario Mengarelli said he has turned the page after resigning in early summer amid an investigation into hazing allegations against the Leopards program.

Mengarelli – who won better than 90% of the games he coached and led the Zillah to three Class 1A state championships in the Yakima Valley SunDome – submitted his resignation June 23. It was accepted two days later by the district’s school board.

The investigation, conducted by Ephrata-based Clear Risk Solutions over the spring and early summer, was delivered July 22 and found the allegations “substantiated in part.”

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Nearly three dozen players, parents, coaches, and school and district administrators were interviewed for the 50-plus page report. Names of the students and parents were redacted in the report.

The majority of those interviewed, with exceptions including the parent and player who levied the allegations, backed Mengarelli and the team-building exercises that included collar shocks administered after missed free throw attempts, handling of bull snakes and use of BB guns.

Many said they didn’t feel players were put in dangerous situations.

“Honestly, I’ve already moved on,” Mengarelli said during a telephone interview last week. “I have had a good escape with my lifestyle.”

Mengarelli’s lifestyle includes living in the country, and being around many animals at his residence that he described as the setting from the “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” song.

Some of that seems to have leaked into the team-building practices that former Leopards assistant coach and Zillah alum Erick Delp described as “unorthodox,” but also as effective as he’d ever seen.

“We were doing country things,” he said earlier this month.

A former player, who asked his name not be used, credited Mengarelli for not only transforming his play to all-conference caliber, but also helping him become a man.

“I understand how people can look at it that way," Mengarelli said of those taken aback. “But in terms of hazing, that’s such (nonsense). I live a very different lifestyle. I’m not wild, but I am adventurous.”

The coach, who graduated from Granger High School in 2007 and took the reins of the Zillah program from Hall of Fame coach Doug Burge in the fall of 2016, said he probably wouldn’t have done anything different.

“Honestly, I’m not a big regret guy,” he said.

Mengarelli also said that stepping away already had been discussed. His schedule includes his job as a PE teacher at Zillah Intermediate School, coaching basketball and other sports, raising and training quarter horses with his father, parenting his two children with his wife, and many more outdoor activities.

“I had about two years left in me in any way,” he said.

Mengarelli didn’t rule out a return to coaching. Even with 10 years under his belt, he’s still in his late 30s.

“Maybe if my kids can be a part of it, I would be more willing,” he said. The Mengarellis have one child in junior high and another in grade school.

What’s more certain, is the love he has for the Zillah community, which continues to back him and the rest of the former coaching staff. Yard signs and even a flag flying above a home of a player’s parents have displayed that support.

“It means so much,” Mengarelli. “I didn’t realize I was that important, I feel people follow you when you’re doing it the right way.”