Xavier hires Cassiere as sports information director
For immediate release . . . July 10, 2006

NEW ORLEANS — Xavier University of Louisiana has hired Ed Cassiere, an award-winning publicist and sportswriter, as its sports information director, effective July 10, according to athletics director Dennis Cousin.

"Ed has considerable talent and experience plus a great passion for his profession, and we're excited to have him at Xavier," Cousin said. "He will be a tremendous addition for our university and play a key part in the growth of Xavier athletics."

Cassiere comes to Xavier after 13 years (1987-2000) as the sports information director at the University of New Orleans. During a 10-year period at UNO, Cassiere publicized Privateer men's basketball teams which appeared in the NCAA Tournament or NIT eight times. He was host SID for NCAA Final Fours in men's basketball (1993) and women's basketball (1991).

"I'm excited to be part of the Xavier family," Cassiere said. "I look forward to telling the continuing story of Xavier athletics and promoting the university, its coaches and student-athletes."

Xavier, a member of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC) and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), will resume intercollegiate competition this fall after a one-year hiatus due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Returning programs will be men's and women's basketball, tennis and cross country.

Cassiere has won more than 50 awards for sports publicity and sportswriting, including "Best in the Nation" in the College Sports Information Directors of America writing contest. In 1979 he received the U.S. Basketball Writers Association's first sportswriting scholarship.

After UNO he spent six years as a freelance sportswriter and publicist. He covered area pro and college events for SportsTicker, directed media relations for Louisiana High School Athletic Association state championships in swimming and volleyball and provided occasional coverage of professional, college and high school games for approximately two dozen newspapers nationwide.

Cassiere was president of the Louisiana Sports Writers Association from 1994-96. He was assistant sports information director at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 1986-87 and a sportswriter at the Shreveport (La.) Journal in his hometown from 1981-86. He earned his first bylines as a 10th-grader, covering sports for The (Shreveport) Times in the mid-1970s.

Cassiere received a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri in 1981. He and his wife, the former Sharon Berken of Jennings, La., have two daughters, Katrina and Amy.