Cassopolis athletic director Bob Guse submitted his resignation Tuesday morning.

The resignation was effective immediately, according to Guse.

Co-Principal Hiawatha Francisco will be the interim athletic director. Guse replaced Francisco in that position six years ago.

Guse said he will return to a career in agriculture, helping his parents on the family farm in LaGrange and Pokagon Townships.

“Events last week, including the passing of staff coach Ron Bass, created a need for self-assessment of my personal direction,” Guse said in a prepared statement. “Following several days of consideration, I resigned as athletic director this morning.”

Guse came to Cassopolis after spending six years as athletic director with Eau Claire.

Cassopolis Supt. Greg Weatherspoon said that Guse also faced a 15 percent cut in the athletic budget next year and would be trimmed to half time.

“We have presented the board of education with a 15 percent cut in our budget across the board,” he said. “Bob was going to be cut to half time. The loss of Ron Bass and budget issues, among other things, led to him feeling it was necessary to give us his resignation this morning.”

Despite recent events, Guse felt a strong bond to the Cassopolis school system.

“I am thankful for the opportunity provided to me in 2006 by the Cassopolis Public Schools administration and board of education to serve as their athletic director,” he said. “This community has a special passion for sports. It was a special experience to interact with all the teams, fans and the coaching staffs past and present.  I am particularly grateful for the tremendous sense of volunteerism present in this community.

“Individuals have donated dozens of hours each sports season, and in some cases several hundred hours over a year. Students have had a special opportunity to develop life skills while involved with sports in every capacity, whether all-conference player, reserve team member, manager, statistician or event assistant. While working behind the scenes, it was rewarding to observe this personal growth.”

Weatherspoon said the district will look at several options the remainder of the school year before deciding on how the athletic department will be structured for the 2012-13 school year.

Among the issues facing the district is the fact that the Lakeland Conference will be losing its biggest three schools — Edwardsburg, Berrien Springs and Coloma — to the Wolverine Conference in the fall.

That leaves just Cassopolis, Buchanan, Brandywine and Bridgman as members of the league.