Cassreino heads St. Joe's award-winning journalism program

    
    Education is a second career for Cassreino, who spent more than 25 years as an award-winning journalist, political columnist and investigative reporter for several Mississippi newspapers and owner of his own media consulting company Cassreino Consulting LLC.
    
    Before teaching, Cassreino served as Capitol Bureau Chief for 13 years at The Sun Herald in Gulfport, managing editor for eight months at The Madison County Journal, assistant managing editor for four years at The Meridian Star and assistant managing editor for 15 months at the Hattiesburg American. 

    Cassreino, 63, enrolled in Teach Mississippi Institute in 2010 – the two-year teacher certification program for professionals offered through the University of Mississippi. He received his teaching certificate from the Mississippi State Department of Education in 2011 and began teaching English 8 at St. Joe that fall. 
    
    In August 2012, Cassreino began rebuilding St. Joseph Catholic School’s journalism program, turning it into the state’s top student media program. Today, Cassreino teaches eighth-through 12^th  grade students Print Journalism, Broadcast Journalism and Sports Broadcasting. He also teaches a nine-week broadcast journalism class for seventh graders.

    Cassreino's eighth-grade and high school students edit and produce the school yearbook, The Shield; produce and staff a Friday morning weekly video newscast “Bruin News Now”; produce and staff a Wednesday morning news update show, the “BNN Midweek Paws”; produce and staff a Monday morning sports preview, "What's  Bruin at the Joe"; and produce and staff live streaming video and radio sports coverage of varsity football, varsity girls and boys basketball and varsity baseball. His seventh-grade students end their nine-week class producing the “JV Bruin News Now.”

    The live audio portion of the streaming video sports coverage – Bruin Sports Radio – can be heard on WJXC-LP Jackson, Mississippi Catholic Radio, 107.9. WJXC’s studio is in Cassreino’s classroom.

   The Mississippi Scholastic Press Association this year named Bruin Sports Radio the state’s best high school live-streaming programming. In addition, the MSPA named “JV Bruin News Now” the state’s best miuddle school newscast, And the MSPA has named “Bruin News Now” Mississippi’s top high school newscast in 2017 and 2018 as well as a finalist for the award in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023. 

    Cassreino's students have twice been named Mississippi's High School Journalist of the Year. His students also have received the prestigious Orley Hood Award for Excellence in High School Journalism (named after longtime popular Clarion-Ledger newspaper sports writer and columnist Orley Hood) seven of the 11 times the honor has been awarded.

   In 2023, the Journalism Education Association at the University of Kansas named Cassreino the National High School Broadcast Adviser of the Year – the first time a Mississippi educator received the prestigious award. Cassreino was a runner-up for the award in 2022 and 2020. Besides that, Cassreino is a two-time runner-up for the Dow Jones News Fund National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year in 2014 and 2015. He also is a four-time Mississippi Scholastic Press Association high school journalism adviser of the year and has been a finalist for the honor each of the past six years. 

    Cassreino is licensed by the Mississippi Department of Education and the Midsouth Association of Independent Schools, or the MAIS, to teach high school English and journalism. He has a school administrator license through the MAIS. And he is a JEA-certified journalism educator. 

    Cassreino, a New Orleans native, is a 1979 graduate of Jesuit High School in New Orleans. He earned bachelor’s degrees in Journalism and in Radio & TV in May 1985 from the University of Mississippi. He earned a master’s degree in Educational Leadership, with a Catholic education emphasis, in December 2017 from the University of Dayton.

    Cassreino is married to the former Pamela Vance of Madison, who also teaches at St. Joseph Catholic School. They have two children, Camryn, who is a sophomore this year at Mississippi College in Clinton, and Matthew, who is a junior this year at St. Joe. The Cassreinos attend St. Joseph Catholic Church in Gluckstadt.

    Cassreino is an avid film buff, a fan of classic and contemporary American and foreign films. He is active in the Carnival scene in New Orleans, where is a member of the Krewe of Thoth Mardi Gras organization.