REESE LEONE

COLUMBUS – West Branch High School graduate Reese Leone is climbing in the coaching ranks.

Leone was named the interim men’s basketball head coach at Ohio Dominican University, an NCAA Division II program. He was appointed Thursday following the resignation of Casey Kaufman, who leaves after three seasons as head coach to pursue other professional opportunities, the school said.

“I am pleased to announce Reese Leone as our new interim men’s basketball head coach,” Ohio Dominican athletic director Jeff Blair said. “It’s been exciting to watch our men’s basketball team grow and develop under this staff and I’d like to thank Casey Kaufman for his leadership.  We are looking forward to seeing the program continue to thrive and I’m eager to see what the future holds for our men’s basketball program under the direction of Coach Leone.”

Leone spent two seasons at Ohio Dominican as a graduate assistant and was promoted to assistant coach earlier this summer.

“I am extremely blessed and humbled to be given an opportunity of this magnitude,” said Leone. “I can’t give enough thanks to our president, Shonna Riedlinger, and our athletic director, Jeff Blair, for presenting me the opportunity to lead the men’s basketball program here at Ohio Dominican. There will be a ton of hard work put forth to prove them right. I have a very strong belief in how we do things here in terms of the types of people we recruit and the level of accountability that exists in the program. Our blueprint will still be built on bringing in high-character kids who are extremely tough and highly competitive.”

The Panthers are coming off 19-10 season. They compete in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC), which also includes Malone, Walsh and Ashland.

Leone, a 2020 graduate of West Branch, led the Warriors to an 18-5 record and the Eastern Buckeye Conference title as a senior.

Leone played four years in the college ranks at Westminster College, appearing in 84 games with 83 starts. He finished his career with 1,026 points and 338 assists.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Sport Management from Westminster and now has a Masters in Sport Management from Ohio Dominican.

“I’m excited to follow the program’s next steps with Coach Leone leading it,” Kaufman said. “I’m fortunate to hand it off to someone I believe in and our players believe in as well.”