2022-23 RRAC SID of the Year
Ed Cassiere

WACO, Texas – As the famous quote goes, "You cannot create experience, you must undergo it."

It is in large measure due to experience that the most-tenured communicator in the conference, Ed Cassiere of Xavier University (La.), was named the 2022-23 RRAC Sports Information Director of the Year. He joins Patty Constantin and Mark Cantrell as the only multiple winners of the award and Constantin as the only repeat winners. Cassiere has been recognized in each of the first two years of Xavier's membership in the RRAC in voting by conference SIDs.

Annually, the RRAC SID of the Year award recognizes the individual who has performed the best at promoting their school's athletics program, collaborating with fellow SIDs, serving the conference, maintaining timely and accurate information, driving media coverage, conducting gameday operations, and expanding social media outreach and broadcast capabilities. It honors those that go above and beyond, while maintaining strong relationships across the conference.

Continuing the high level of work he delivers consistently, Cassiere managed the communication for all 14 of Xavier's sports and the preparation for the addition of men's and women's soccer in the fall of 2023. Xavier teams won four RRAC championship events – volleyball, men's basketball, women's tennis and women's track & field - and made seven national tournament appearances. Xavier also won titles in unaffiliated group events in cheer and men's tennis, and the school had its first men's track & field individual national champion.

Cassiere completed his 17^th academic year at Xavier and his 31^st year as a college publicist. He was promoted from sports information director to assistant athletics director for communications in 2017, and he was elevated again in 2020 to associate athletics director for strategic communications. He was chosen as the 2018-19 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference SID of the Year, and he was recognized as the 2021 Sports Information Director of the Year in the small-school division by Black College Nines.

Prior to arriving at Xavier, Cassiere was the SID at the University of New Orleans (La.) for 13 years, and he was an assistant SID at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now known as the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) during the 1986-87 year.

"I was happy to hear that Ed was named conference SID of the Year," says Xavier athletic director and volleyball coach Pat Kendrick. "I believe it's well-deserved. Ed is upfront and detailed. He knows more about the history of Xavier Athletics than most people have forgotten. No job is too small. He works hard to provide the media coverage our school needs."

Cassiere has earned 96 awards in his career - including 30 for first place - in sportswriting and sports information. He was labeled as "one of the best sports information directors in the country" by HBCU Digest in 2015, and he was the NAIA recipient of the Grant Burger Media Award from the American Volleyball Coaches Association for his coverage of the Gold Nuggets in 2016 while receiving the NAIA Southeast Region award in 2018-19.

Cassiere is a current member of the NAIA's Statistics, History, Records & Honors Committee and he served three years (2015-18) as the NAIA Statistics Committee co-chair. He's also a member of the Greater New Orleans Sports Awards Committee, which is sponsored by the Allstate Sugar Bowl.

Cassiere was president of the Louisiana Sports Writers Association from 1994-96, and earned his Bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. The native of Shreveport was a sportswriter for the Shreveport Journal from 1981-86.

RRAC SID of the Year Honorees