Matthew Bonnette Named Assistant AD for Communications at McNeese State
LAKE CHARLES, La. - Matthew Bonnette, a member of a
prominent family of sport information directors, has been named assistant
athletic director for communications at McNeese State.
He is the younger son of Louis Bonnette, who is retiring
after 46 years as the sports information director at McNeese. His brother Michael
Bonnette is the sports information director at LSU.
McNeese athletic director Tommy McClelland announced the
hiring saying that Bonnette will assume his new position on July 1.
"We are so excited to have Matthew join our team,"
McCelland said. "He not only brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise, but he
also understands how to effectively communicate an athletics department's
message. I have watched Matthew from a distance over the past several years at
Northwestern State and I have been very impressed with his abilitites."
Now in his 11th year in the sports information field,
Bonnette has served as associate sports information director at Northwestern
State for the past nine years. Prior to that he was the sports information
director at Henderson State (Ark).
A 2002 graduate of McNeese State, Bonnette supervised all
layouts and design work for all media guides and game programs at Northwestern
State and was the primary media contact for the Demon baseball team as well as
the women's basketball and volleyball teams.
While attending McNeese, Bonnette served two years as the
sports editor of the school newspaper. He also worked as both a volunteer and a
student in the sports information department while being employed at KPLC-TV as
the commercial production manager where he won several advertising awards for
his work.
He is a member of CoSIDA, the Louisiana Sports Writers
Association, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and the
United States Basketball Writers Association.
He has been as member of the CoSIDA Academic all-America
committeee the last three years and has directed the voting for the
all-Louisiana baseball teams.
His 2010 Northwestern State football media guide placed
second and third in its respective divisions in the LSWA sports information
directors contest while his baseball media guid placed second. He has won 11
awards from the LSWA in his career.
Bonnette is married to the former Colene Lanier of Lake
Charles and the couple has two daughters, 11 year old Haley and eight year old
Katelyn.