Joe Kacsandi '98

Major: Biology. Joe also earned a teaching certificate from Otterbein in '99.

If not for his love of playing football, Joe Kacsandi may not have been an Otterbein graduate. Now, as the new principal at Heritage Middle School in Westerville, he wouldn't have it any other way.

After graduating from Benedictine High School in 1989, Joe attended a community college. A year later he was recruited to play football at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania, but without enough scholarship money, Joe was forced to take some time off to earn money in order to complete his degree.

After nearly two years of working in the roofing business, he enrolled at the Ohio State University where he had aspirations of playing football. However, per Big 10 Conference rules, Joe had exceeded his years of player eligibility. But as luck would have it, Joe still had to two years of eligibility left under Otterbein's Ohio Athletic Conference rules. And at age 24, Joe became a Cardinal.

Joe enrolled as a continuing studies student at Otterbein and played football his first two years on campus. He graduated in 1998 with his Bachelor of Science degree in Life Science Biology, and earned his teaching certificate from Otterbein in 1999. He later went on to earn his Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning from Nova Southeastern University and his Master of Education in Administration from Ashland University.

He began his teaching career as a seventh-grade science teacher at Sells Middle School in Dublin. A year later, Joe moved back to his hometown of Cleveland and took a position working with students with special needs, and he also gained experience in administration.

For the past two years, Joe has served as assistant principal of Normandy High School in the Parma City School District, where he also served as the physics and physical science teacher and football coach prior to his administrative position.

Though his path of success took a lot of hard work and perseverance, Joe said his experiences along the way no doubt qualified him for his role as principal. "I'm excited to work with the [middle school] level again. I really enjoy this age of students because you can still [work on their development] and get them excited about learning," he said.

Not only is Joe focused on student development, but he's just as interested in staff development. He said he will engage the Heritage Middle School staff in training to continue improving teaching techniques and learning outcomes.