In a vote by their fellow Ohio High School Athletic Association Board members, Mentor High School athletic administrator Jeff Cassella has been elected president and West Chester Lakota West assistant principal and athletic administrator Scott Kaufman vice president of the OHSAA Board of Directors for the 2020-21 school year. They will officially assume their new duties as officers on Aug. 1.

After the recently completed OHSAA referendum voting in May by member school principals, a newly approved OHSAA Constitution item changes the terms of OHSAA Board of Directors members from two years to three. Therefore, each voting member on the current OHSAA Board of Directors will be returning in 2020-21 for their second or third years on the Board.

Cassella has been the athletic administrator at Mentor for the past 13 years. A member of the OHSAA’s Northeast District Athletic Board, Jeff began his term on the OHSAA Board of Directors on August 1, 2018, as a Class AAA representative. He is a graduate of Perry High School and holds degrees from Bowling Green State and Cleveland State universities.

Kaufman has been the assistant principal and athletic administrator at Lakota West since 2014. He is a member of the OHSAA’s Southwest District Athletic Board and began his term on the OHSAA Board of Directors on August 1, 2019, as a Class AAA representative. He is a graduate of Cincinnati Seven Hills High School and holds degrees from Bradley and Xavier universities.

Besides Cassella and Kaufman, the other voting members of the 2020-21 Board of Directors include current Board President Dan Leffingwell (Class A representative, East District, superintendent, Noble Local Schools, Sarahsville); current Board Vice President Jan Wilking (female representative, Southwest District, athletic administrator, Cincinnati Wyoming High School); Ryan Fitzgerald (Class AA representative, Central District, athletic administrator, Columbus Hamilton Township High School); Gary Kreinbrink (Class A representative, Northwest District, athletic administrator and girls basketball coach, Leipsic High School); Leonard Steyer (Class AA representative, Southeast District, principal, Chillicothe Southeastern High School); Bill Warfield (ethnic minority representative, Central District, curriculum development supervisor, Olentangy Local School District, Lewis Center), and Steve Watkins (7th-8th grade representative, Northeast District, principal, Dalton Middle School).

Ex-officio members of the Board of Directors for the 2020-21 school year will be Bruce Brown, executive director, Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association, and John Richard, deputy superintendent, Ohio Department of Education (ODE). Richard will be replacing Jeremy Marks, who has served as ODE’s ex-officio member of the board since February 2014, has resigned his position from the OHSAA Board of Directors but continues to work at ODE.

Information received from the OHSAA.