Northeast Louisiana basketball and legendary Monroe-area coach Jesse Burnette dies at 70
Monroe-area high school basketball coaching icon and former Northeast Louisiana University player Jesse Burnette has died. He was 70.
Burnette was a four-year letterman and two-year starter at Northeast Louisiana, playing under coach Lenny Fant. He was the third Black player to play basketball for NLU.
In 1999, NLU was renamed University of Louisiana Monroe.
Bunette later went on to coach for 45 years, 38 at the high-school level.
“Jesse will be remembered as one of the all-time coaching legends in our area," ULM basketball coach Keith Richard said in a school release. "His ability to communicate with his players stuck with me as a young, graduate assistant coach. Success followed him everywhere, and he definitely was a positive influence in our basketball world for a long time.”
Richard coached alongside Burnette as assistant coaches at NLU on Mike Vining’s staff from 1984-86.
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A native of Rayville, Burnette was an All-State player at Britton High School.
At NLU, he averaged 9.6 points and 6.8 rebounds, totaling 810 points and 570 rebounds in his career. The post player set a school record 35 second-half points against Corpus Christi his senior season.
During his time at NLU (1969-73) the program had four consecutive winning seasons including back to back NAIA District playoff appearances.
Burnette's love for basketball failed to cease – staying close to the game as a coach. Before branching out on his own, he was a student assistant for Fant in 1973-74.
He took over the Delta High School program (1974-82) and led the Mustangs to two LHSAA Class 2A state runner-up finishes in 1980 and 1982. After finding success at Delta, Burnette returned to NLU as an assistant coach under Vining (1982-89), helping earn an NCAA Tournament bid in 1986 and the National Invitation Tournament in 1988.
"He knew basketball and he liked people," Vining said. "Jesse had an interest in the kids, not just in basketball but their personal lives, and they cared about him because of what he gave to them. He won multiple state championships. I’m thankful we stayed in close contact."
From 1989-93, Burnette built the West Ouachita program from the ground up. He later returned to Delta (1993-97), leading the Mustangs to a LHSAA Class 2A state championship in 1995.
In 1997 he took over at Carroll until 2003, leading the Bulldogs to a LHSAA Class 3A state championship title in 2002 and five consecutive district titles (1998-2002).
Burnette spent five season at Sterlington (2003-07) and one season as an assistant coach at River Oaks (2008) before returning to the Bulldogs.
In his final coaching stint at Carroll (2008-19), Burnette took the Bulldogs to four LHSAA tournament appearances, a district championship in 2010 and state runner up finish, and two LHSAA Class 3A state titles (2011, 2013).
Following his retirement in 2019, Burnette told the News-Star that he had enjoyed every coaching opportunity but being able to return to Delta and Carroll with the community welcoming him with open arms was special to him.
“Coaching is teaching and getting the kids ready to play for a big ball game is what I enjoyed the most,” Burnette said. “You can’t do all that we did without help, and I was blessed to have some talented kids and some good people to help me coach them.”
Emely Hernandez covers University of Louisiana-Monroe athletics and high school sports. Email her at ehernandez@thenewsstar.com and follow her on Twitter @emhernandeznews.
This article originally appeared on Monroe News-Star: Former Monroe-area high school basketball coach Jesse Burnette dies at 70
