The governing Board of Directors of the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association removed Ed Sheakley as its executive director on Wednesday, August 24.
Sheakley will remain with the organization as a senior advisor until January 13, 2017, in order to assist with the transition to a new executive director.
Sheakley was under contract until the end of June 2017, but the board voted to remove him from the position.
Sheakley had been executive director for seven years, and presided over several controversial decisions regarding high school sports during that time.
Sheakley was quoted in a press release about some of the accomplishments of the OSSAA during his tenure:
“I am proud of those achievements,” Mr. Sheakley stated, “and I’m also very proud of the relationship we have established with Special Olympics Oklahoma, and for OSSAA’s ‘Win-Win Week,’ the only state activities association program in the country in which high school students are recognized annually for service-learning projects. The students at our member schools have created wonderful projects over the past few years to raise money and increase awareness for the cancer prevention and treatment programs at the University of Oklahoma’s Stephenson Cancer Center. We also organized a very successful year-long celebration in 2010-2011 for the centennial year of the Association. In addition, over the past five years, we have been able to increase reimbursements to schools participating in and hosting play-off competitions by over a half-million dollars, and since 2012 we’ve made reimbursements available in six activities for which schools had never received reimbursements before. “I also very much want to thank the staff I have worked with all these years,” Mr. Sheakley said. “We have very experienced and professional staff members, who are often called upon to speak at national meetings and to serve on national rules-writing committees. We’ve added permanent staff positions to help with electronic information management and media relations, and we have greatly improved and expanded our website and our use of social media during my time as Executive Director.”
The news release said Sheakley will continue to be paid through the end of his contract.
