Longtime Case Western Reserve University athletics administrator Patrick Kennedy will serve as the university’s interim director of athletics and chair of physical education, effective Oct. 16.
Kennedy, the department’s associate athletic director since 2000, assumes the position vacated after eight-year incumbent Dave Diles accepted the athletic director position at Virginia Military Institute. The university will launch a national search for Diles’ successor, which is expected to take several months.
“Pat has the administrative experience and historic perspective to manage our programs during this transition,” Vice President for Student Affairs Lou Stark said. “I am grateful to him for stepping up to this interim role.”
Kennedy joined the Case Western Reserve physical education and athletics department in 1990 as an instructor as well as director of intramural sports, facility coordinator and sport club director. A decade later he became associate athletic director, where he assisted with department governance, oversight of special projects (including athletic and recreation facilities at the North Residential Village), management of the varsity athlete insurance program, development and submission of NCAA reports and coach/staff candidate search committees.
A resident of Cleveland and a certified baseball, basketball and fast-pitch official in Northeast Ohio, Kennedy was appointed associate professor of physical education in 2006 and coordinator of physical education in 2007.
Kennedy earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Miami University (Ohio) in 1983 and a master’s in recreation from the University of Maryland in 1985. From 1985-90, he served as assistant director of recreational sports at the University of Texas at Arlington.