NATCHITOCHES – Outgoing Northwestern State associate sports information director Matthew Bonnette was made an honorary Demon baseball letterwinner in a pregame ceremony at Brown-Stroud Field Saturday before NSU's final game of the 2012 season.

Director of athletics Greg Burke and head baseball coach J.P. Davis presented Bonnette with a plaque recognizing him for his extensive efforts on behalf of the Demon baseball program during his nine years as the sports information contact for the sport.

“It's in recognition not only of the quality of his work, but of the personal investment that he has given to our baseball program, and truly, our entire athletic program,” said assistant athletic director Doug Ireland, the Demons' SID. “I am so appreciative of Greg and J.P. for extending this special honor to Matt. This means he's always going to be officially part of our athletic department family.”

Bonnette will become assistant athletic director - communications at McNeese State University on July 1, succeeding his father Louis, a legendary figure in the profession. The senior Bonnette, a member of the College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame, is retiring after 46 years as SID at McNeese, which is Matthew's alma mater.

Now in his 11^th year in the sports information field, Bonnette was previously the sports information director at Henderson State (Ark.) working for former NSU football coach Sam Goodwin, who was the Reddies' athletic director.

Bonnette's wife, Colene, has been an administrative assistant for the men's basketball and soccer programs over the past few years and earlier served in the same capacity in the sports information office. They have two daughters, Haley (11) and Katelyn (8).

A 2002 graduate of McNeese State, Bonnette supervised all layouts and design work for all media guides and game programs at Northwestern and was also the primary media contact for the women's basketball and volleyball teams while overseeing coverage of soccer and softball, and assisting with other sports.

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 the 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 guide placed second.  He has won 11 awards from the LSWA in his career.

His brother Michael is the associate athletic director/sports information director at LSU. His sister Anne is a nurse in Lake Charles, and his mother Willene is an elementary school teacher.