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SCOTTISH AMERICAN ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
Sean Smith
President
2025 SAAA Board of Directors
Grant Leslie
Vice President
Jon O'Neil
Treasurer
Rose Doylemason
Secretary
Sean joined the SAAA board in 2019. Originally a board member at large, he was elected as Vice President in 2020 and President in 2024.
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A lifetime Southern California native, Sean graduated from the University of La Verne with his BS and MBA, while also being a 6 time all conference member of their track and field team. A Master's and A class competitor, Sean finished top 3 at the Master's World Championships on 4 of his Eight trips to the annual event.
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In his spare time, while not obsessing about throwing, Sean owns a consulting firm and has spent 15 years as an Associate Business instructor at Mira Costa College in San Diego, CA.
Grant is new to the board for 2025. A lifelong attendant of highland festivals. After spending many years as a spectator, he jumped into competing in Highland Games in 2022. Later in 2023, he became a certified SAAA judge.
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Outside of competitions, he coordinates the High Desert Drylanders throwing group in the Inland Empire. He is always encouraging new throwers to try out this great sport and join an amazing community.
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Born and raised in the Inland Empire, Grant currently resides in Ontario with his wife, and women's masters thrower, Lisa.
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Jon started competing in the Highland games in 2008 after an illustrious college track and field career, earning Division 1 All-American honors and competing at many NCAA and National Championships as well as at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Trials. As a Highland games competitor he quickly moved up the ranks of the “A” class and won the Amateur Championships at Pleasanton before moving up to the professional class where he competed from 2012 to 2019 and won the IHGF World Team Championship with teammate Dan McKim in 2012 and finished 7th at the IHGF World Championships in 2013. In 2019 he moved to the Masters class and finished 2nd at the Masters World Championships in 2019 and 3rd in 2021. Jon lives in Foothill Ranch, CA with his wife, Katie, his son, Bradley (8) and his daughter, Kiley (6). They have 2 cats and a pet fish. Jon has worked in the legal field for over 20 years.
Rose Doylemason fell in love with the Games when her family moved to Pleasanton in 2006; her whole family attends every year as a clan. As a track and field athlete, Rose threw discus (and, begrudgingly, shot put) at a highly competitive level through college, where she attended Cal Poly SLO as a walk-on NCAA Division One athlete. A relatively recent addition to the SFV Underlanders practice squad, Rose has become obsessed with the sport in short order, and is excited to assist the SAAA in strengthening and serving the Highland Games community.
Away from the field, Rose is an accomplished professional trombonist, performing orchestral, jazz, and commercial music across the country. She has worked in music and arts administration for nearly a decade. Rose has certifications as a Master Barista and a Cicerone (a beer sommelier), and has a deep love of languages, reading, and her cat, Cat King Cole.
Ben Meeker
Member at Large
Seat 1
Courtney Buchanan Member at Large
Seat 2
Francis Cullen Member at Large
Seat 3
Eddie Brown
Member at Large
Seat 4
Carrie Johnson
Member at Large
Seat 5
Ben joined the board in 2024. An athlete in the highland games since 2016, Ben has competed at Pleasanton several times as well as the Masters World Championships.
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Ben has practiced law for over 20 years and is a graduate of Creighton University.
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Ben lives in San Marcos with his wife, children, 6 alpacas, a dozen horses and a Scottish Cow.
Courtney is new to the SAAA board for 2025. Originally from Colorado Springs, CO, Courtney is a Masters competitor with years of experience in the games.
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Courtney attended the University of Glasgow in the UK and studied Archaeology.
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Today she resides in Pasadena and works as an Archeologist for the Angeles National Forest.
Francis joined the board in 2024. An A class highland games competitor for the past 2 seasons, Francis brings a wealth of IT and programming knowledge to the board.
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Originally from the East Coast, Francis lives in Escondido with his wife and son.
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Eddie has been involved in highland games for over a decade. Always a favorite of the crowd, Eddie is an excellent caber tosser and has been a pro level athlete for the past 4 seasons.
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Eddie is the Athletic Director of the Phoenix highland games, and lives with his wife and daughter in Phoenix, AZ.
Carrie enters her 3rd year on the SAAA board in 2024. Entering her 6th season in the games, Carrie has competed twice in the women's world championship.
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Prior to highland games, Carrie competed in track and field and was a stellar performer for Fallbrook Union High School, and later, the Cal Bears Track team throwing the wire hammer with a career best of over 208 feet!
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Born in Oceanside, CA, Carrie resides in San Francisco.
Message from the President
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Thank you to all the athletes, judges and SAAA supporters for an outstanding 2024. We conducted four events and had another extremely successful year. San Diego ended up being an all time record for athlete attendance with 135 athletes! We also saw over 20 field records get broken and even 3 new world records be set at our competitions. What a great year it was.
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We look forward to bringing our athletes competitions in Vista, Flagstaff, AZ., San Diego and Ventura in 2025. We are also excited to have a fantastic young, energetic board that is full of ideas to improve our events and organization. ​
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With our all volunteer board made up of current athletes, we will continue to work hard on your behalf to bring the best Scottish Heavy Athletics events to our So Cal athletes. None of this is possible without our amazing SAAA members and athletes. We thank you all for the support and love. We will do our best to take it up a notch in 2025 and break more records, provide the best games and give back in every way possible.
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Have a great season everyone!!!
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Sean
02/14/2025
OUR MISSION
The Scottish American Athletic Association is a professional sanctioning body that provides rules, regulations, standards, and implements for hosting both men’s and women’s Amateur and Professional Scottish Highland Games athletic competitions. The SAAA is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization that works with local and national festivals to help promote and standardize the athletic aspect of Scottish culture, and celebrate its rich tradition.
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