CBS Sports college football studio host Tim Brando recently told a group of sports writers that Northwestern State was the model for how to run a highly successful Division I athletic program while playing Division I-AA football.

He pointed out that Northwestern maximizes its resources to support consistently successful programs in every season. He noted the university’s remarkable success in hiring outstanding coaches and in producing nationally-renowned student-athletes who achieve academically and athletically.

Earlier in the discussion came mention of the recent U.S. News & World Report survey that revealed Northwestern had one of the nation’s winningest athletic programs in Division I. Among the 321 Division I members, NSU ranked 35th nationally in 2000-01 in winning percentage (62.2 percent), second in Louisiana only to LSU.

Those achievements are among a long list compiled while Jerry Pierce has served as vice president of external affairs at Northwestern. A significant aspect of his job is oversight of intercollegiate athletics. Pierce works closely with athletic director Greg Burke, associate AD Donnie Cox and all NSU coaches and staff members to keep Northwestern athletics competing at a championship level week after week, month after month and year after year.

Pierce, in his 16th year as a vice president, has served his alma mater, adopted hometown and state with distinction for more than three decades. He oversees university operations in athletics, alumni and development, public and media relations and assists President Dr. Randall J. Webb in governmental affairs activities.

A 1961 graduate of Northwestern, Pierce served as trainer for the Demon football team during his college years, working closely with legendary coach Jack Clayton. After earning his journalism degree, Pierce went to work for the New Orleans Times Picayune, serving as a reporter and editor. He was named executive sports editor at the age of 24.

In 1965, he chose to raise his two sons in Natchitoches and returned to NSU as sports information director. He was promoted to news bureau director two years later and assumed additional responsibilities in athletics, alumni affairs and other areas through the years.

He founded, in 1972, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame facility in Prather Coliseum on the NSU campus, providing a home for an entity created in 1958. He established annual induction activities that remain in place three decades later, and served as director of the Hall for 19 years until his promotion to vice president forced him to step aside from the volunteer post.

He helped guide Northwestern into three athletic conferences (Trans America, 1979; Gulf Star, 1983; Southland, 1987) and NCAA Division I status in 1977. He is a past president of the Southland and has served the conference through other offices and committee positions.

In 1994, he was named one of Louisiana’s 20 most influential sports figures by the Times-Picayune. Also on the list were New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson, LSU athletic director Joe Dean and basketball coach Dale Brown, and Grambling football coaching legend Eddie Robinson.

His salesmanship and managerial skills were instrumental in convincing Tri-Star Productions to film the 1989 smash hit movie Steel Magnolias, with an all-star cast including Julia Roberts, Sally Field and Dylan McDermott, in Natchitoches and on the NSU campus. The movie’s impact on tourism in Natchitoches continues to resonate more than a decade later.

Pierce is regarded as one of the most effective legislative liaisons for Louisiana’s higher education system. He is also a popular after dinner speaker and master of ceremonies who has spoken at hundreds of events since 1965.

Pierce and his wife Regina, a teacher, live on Cane River Lake in Natchitoches. He has two sons, Randy and Rick, both NSU graduates; and three grandchildren, twins Evan and Amanda, 17, and Miranda, 6, and two stepchildren, Nicholas and Natalie.

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Recently surpassing his 10th anniversary as director of athletics at Northwestern State, Greg Burke has shown an amazing knack for maximizing resources, an astounding ability to be integrally involved in each of NSU’s athletic teams, and he’s demonstrated a Midas touch in hiring coaches.

Athletics director at Northwestern since August 30, 1996, Burke has steered NSU athletics to many of its greatest accomplishments while overseeing a program that has fielded championship caliber teams in nearly all of the school’s  NCAA Division I sports.

There have been 22 Southland Conference championships; 16 teams in postseason play; 43 national award winners, most either All-America athletes or Academic All-America recipients; and three Olympic competitors.

NSU in 2004-05 became the first Southland Conference member in the league's 41-year history to sweep football, men's basketball and baseball championships in the same athletic year. It’s been done only once in Southeastern Conference history, by Alabama in 1933-34, and only four times in Big Ten Conference history, the last time by Michigan State in 1979-80.

Those accomplishments have come with one of the more modest athletic budgets in the state and conference. Burke’s management skill and fundraising ability have been pivotal.

This year, he completed sales of a $2 million series of sponsorships for new scoreboards to be installed at all NSU athletic venues, along with a marquee for campus use. He also broke new ground by generating private backing for the first long-term guaranteed coaching contract in school history, for highly-successful basketball coach Mike McConathy.

Burke has displayed a remarkable ability to hire dynamic head coaches, including several whose success at Northwestern State has propelled them to national prominence in subsequent positions.

Four of his best hires remain on staff at NSU.  Two had no previous head coaching experience, but quickly guided the Demons to conference championships and NCAA postseason action.

Scott Stoker was one of the youngest Division I head football coaches in the country when Burke brought the former Demon quarterback home on Jan. 7, 2002. In his first season as a head coach, Stoker led the Demons to an 8-1 start and a Division I-AA playoff berth. In his third season, Stoker won SLC and Louisiana coach of the year honors after NSU won the conference title and returned to the I-AA postseason scene.

Baseball coach Mitch Gaspard also made his debut both as a head coach and in charge in the Demons’ dugout in 2002. He immediately won an SLC title, captured another in 2005 and steered NSU into the 2005 NCAA Tournament.

Two more Burke coaching hires had Northwestern in NCAA Tournament play in their second seasons and have been back to postseason since.

McConathy was hired in 1999 after 16 seasons as a junior college head coach. In his seven years, the Demons have reached the conference tournament championship game four times, winning twice to make the school’s first two NCAA Tournament appearances, winning a game each time (2001, 2006).

Women’s soccer coach Jimmy Mitchell has taken three teams to the NCAA playoffs, making NSU the only Louisiana university to do so. Dramatic facility enhancements have occurred in his seven seasons.

Burke also picked head coaches who have subsequently been hired by Florida, Missouri, Kentucky and Wichita State.

Late last year, Burke was tabbed as one of two Natchitoches Parish Cenla Newsmakers of 2005 by the Alexandria Town Talk newspaper’s editorial staff.

The paper cited the men's basketball success, NCAA Tournament appearances by the baseball and women's soccer teams, while other achievements included NSU leading the Southland Conference and all state public universities in the NCAA's initial Academic Progress Rates report in February 2005 measuring the job Division I athletic programs are doing helping advance their student-athletes toward graduation. NSU again sparkled in the NCAA’s 2006 APR report issued March 1, with the men’s basketball team ranking in the top 10 percentile in the country and football rated again among the state and SLC leaders.

In 2005, Burke was one of three recipients of the All-America Football Foundation's Gen. Robert R. Neyland Outstanding Athletic Director Award.

This April, he received the 2006 “Outstanding Alumni Award” from his alma mater, Marlington High School in Alliance, Ohio, recognizing his community service and professional achievements.  Burke became one of only 21 alumni honored since the award was instituted in 1982.

In June, he was a featured speaker and panelist at the National Association of Collegiate Athletic Directors convention in New Orleans. Burke spoke on "Budgets at Non-BCS Schools" in a breakout session to members of the College Athletic Business Managers of America at the NACDA convention. He took part in a panel discussion of "Fundraising from an Athletic Director's Perspective" speaking to the National Association of Athletic Development Directors.

Burke has served a four-year term on the NCAA Division I Football Issues Committee (1999-2002) and concurrently served a term on the eight-member NCAA Division I-AA Football Championship Committee that administers the national playoffs. Since his committee term expired, Burke has served as a site supervisor for I-AA playoff games across the nation and he is regarded as one of the country's premiere advocates of I-AA football.

Tremendous competitive strides have been made in women’s athletics under Burke’s guidance. The NSU soccer program is the only one in Louisiana ever to reach the NCAA Tournament, doing so three times. Softball has made three NCAA Tournament appearances. Volleyball has set attendance records and made its best-ever showings in conference play in the past two years.

In 2004, NSU received the highest possible rating, "fully certified," from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, affirming that Northwestern operates its athletic program in substantial conformity with operating principles adopted by the NCAA Division I membership.

Burke is a past president of the Natchitoches Kiwanis Club and remains active in that civic group. He has also been part of the steering committee for the Natchitoches Christmas Festival and is a former president of the Natchitoches Area Jaycees. He is involved with the American Heart Association.

He and his wife, Susu, a Natchitoches native, NSU graduate and teacher, have a 12-year-old daughter, Catherine, who is a future Lady Demon. The Burkes enjoyed their 19th wedding anniversary this summer.

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Donnie Cox serves as Associate Athletic Director for Internal Affairs at Northwestern State.  He has been charged with the responsibilities of game day manager and the daily operations of the athletic department. 

Cox has been an integral part of NSU athletic administration during the past ten years.  He restructured contracts with vendors and streamlined operations, saving tens of thousands of dollars for the department. He took over football scheduling starting with the 1998 season and has been instrumental in securing guarantee games that will have generated over $3 million for the department through 2007.

His management skills have streamlined game day operations and enhanced facilities and support services for NSU athletics.

Cox joined the Northwestern staff in 1983 as an assistant football coach serving as offensive coordinator and Assistant Head Coach.  He was also interim softball coach for one win in 1995.

After 11 years of coaching at Northwestern, Cox became director of athletic facilities in June of 1994.  He added Academics and NCAA Compliance to his duties in May of 1995.  He also served as interim athletic director for eight weeks in 1996 after the retirement of Tynes Hildebrand before taking his current position that same year.

A 1968 graduate of Harding University, Cox was a four-year starter and a two time all conference defensive back.  Cox and his wife, Linda, have five children:  Julie, Christi, Ty, Ben, and Gillian and four grandchildren, Daniel, Ben, Joseph and Piper.

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One of the most accomplished student-athletes ever at Northwestern State, two-time football All-America center William Broussard is returning to his alma mater as the Assistant Athletic Director for Development, coordinating fundraising activities through the Northwestern Athletic Association.

Along with earning All-America honors on the field in 1998 and 1999, Broussard was recognized as one of the nation’s top scholar-athletes. He received a $5,000 NCAA Postgraduate Fellowship and was one of only 15 seniors from all levels of college football in 1999 to be awarded a $18,000 National Football Foundation/Hall of Fame Scholar-Athlete Fellowship at a black-tie NFF dinner in New York City.

Broussard is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Arizona and will defend his dissertation in April, 2007. He earned his master’s degree there in April 2002 in Rhetoric, Composition and the Teaching of the English Language. He was a May 2000 graduate of the Louisiana Scholars’ College at Northwestern, earning his degree with distinction in English, with an emphasis on Professional Writing.

He has worked in the Dean of Students Office at Arizona since 2004, serving the past two years as the program coordinator for judicial affairs. He previously founded and coordinated the CATS Center for Learning and Writing, a joint program between the UA athletics program and the university’s English department, serving in that role from 2001-2003. He was qualitative research supervisor for the Dean of Student’s Office at Arizona in 2004-05.

Broussard has also taught college writing at the University of Arizona since 2000 and at Pima Community College since 2002. He has also been an invited speaker or has consulted with writing program and athletics administrators regarding writing center theory at Saint Mary’s University, Utah, Michigan State, Syracuse, and Washington.

As a football player for the Demons, Broussard was a two-time All-Southland Conference first-team selection and a two-time All-Louisiana pick who was voted the Joe Delaney Memorial Leadership Award for Offense in 1999 by his teammates, making him permanent team captain of that squad.

He helped lead the 1998 Demons to the outright Southland Conference championship a year after they shared the title. The 1998 team earned a No. 2 seed in the national playoffs and was beaten in the semifinals by eventual national champion Massachusetts.

He also received the Burger King Football Scholar-Athlete Award, one of only 25 given nationally, in 1999, along with the Issues in Black Higher Education “Arthur Ashe Scholar-Athlete” designation that year. He was a six-time recipient of SLC Academic Honor Roll recognition and also made the Academic All-District VI first team in 1998 and 1999.

Broussard, a native of Crowley, is married to the former Kendra Peters, a Lady Demon volleyball player during the couple’s days at Northwestern.

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Charles "Chuck" Bourg is his seventh year as Director of Operations for Athletic Facilities/Equipment Services and 10th year overall at NSU. 

He is an integral part of Demon basketball.  He travels on select trips with the team, handling all equipment responsibilities.  He also served as the NCAA liaison for the Demons in Auburn Hills at the 2006 NCAA Tournament.

Bourg, a nationally certified athletic equipment manager, has served in this capacity (1996-98, 2006-present), as well as the equipment manager at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (1999-2000) and Nicholls State (1985-96).

Bourg is responsible for the upkeep, maintenance and operations of all eight of NSU’s athletic complexes, which includes Prather Coliseum, the Jack Fisher Tennis Complex, Brown-Stroud Field, Turpin Stadium, the NSU Soccer Complex, the NSU Softball Complex, the Walter Ledet Track Complex and the athletic fieldhouse.

He is an active member of the (AEMA) Athletic Equipment Managers Association and the (LAPPA) Louisiana Higher Education Facility Manager's Association.

His hobbies include anything outdoors and cooking anything that would fit in his pot or sit still long enough.

Bourg is married to the former Carmel Brazan of Vacherie, La., who is employed at the NSU Alumni Center.

The couple has one daughter, Hannah, who turned four in December.

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No stranger to Northwestern State athletics, Katie Harris begins her first season as the Assistant Director of Athletic Facilities.

Harris played basketball for the Lady Demons, playing alongside all-time greats Teressa Thomas and Lonnie Banks in 1982-83. She has been associated with the program ever since and recently received her bachelor’s degree.

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Dustin Eubanks is in his eighth year in the NSU athletic department and his fourth year at the helm of the compliance duties, keeping all athletic personnel current and in accordance with NCAA and Southland Conference guidelines.

A 1996 education graduate of Northwestern, the 33-year-old avid fan of all teams that hail from Pittsburgh seized an opportunity to serve as a graduate assistant in the sports information department at Northwestern while beginning the pursuit of his master’s degree in health and physical education (concentration in sports administration), which he obtained in May of 2003, and was impressive enough to earn a promotion to full-time status in November 1998. 

Eubanks is married to the former Dawn Hornsby of Branch and the two just welcomed a new baby girl to their family, Taylor Nicole, on May 10.  The couple also has an older daughter, Emilie (11), who shares her birthday with her new baby sister.

Dustin and Dawn, who is the Associate Director of Financial Aid at NSU, celebrated their second wedding anniversary this past June.

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Roxanne Freeman began working at NSU in 1983 as an accounting clerk in business affairs. She transferred to the athletic department as football/baseball/track secretary and served under Sam Goodwin, Leon Johnson and several baseball coaches, including Jim Wells, for eight seasons before graduating with a B.S. in accounting in May 1995.

Freeman then became the compliance coordinator and academic advisor during a three-year span before leaving in 1998.

She returned to NSU in the Fall of 2000 in her current position as Business Manager where she now serves as liaison between the athletic department and business affairs. She has one son, Aaron Pizani, 21, who is currently an NSU student.

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Holloway, a 2002 graduate of Texas State with a double major in finance and marketing, replaces former NSU soccer player Tenille Barmore, who resigned last month to enter nursing school.

Since October 2005, Holloway has been working in the Texas State athletic department as a marketing assistant. Previously he was a territory sales manager for a distributor of ExxonMobil Lubricants in Seattle and a senior project manager for three years with Creative Management Group in Atlanta.

In his last year with Creative Management Group, he led the firm in client retention and service while managing up to 85 accounts around the country.

At Texas State, Holloway assisted with preseason ticket drives, developing comprehensive marketing plans, cultivating and maintaining corporate sponsors, and was the liaison working with Texas State’s student body, including fraternities, sororities and campus organizations.

He developed and implemented the Bobcat Frequent Fan Card for basketball, baseball and softball. He was active in event management and specialized in ticket sales, campus relations, sponsorship fulfillment and marketing and game promotions. He led the department in ticket sales through the Bobcat Business Partners Program.

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Zach Williams
Athletic Ticket Manager

The newest member of the NSU athletic administrative staff is ticket manager Zach Williams, who spent more than a year as the Wildcat Athletic Association Coordinator for the Louisiana College Athletics Department prior to joining NSU.

Williams is a March 2004 graduate of Louisiana Tech University and earned his master's degree in sport management a year later from Georgia Southern.

With Georgia Southern, he assisted in the compliance office. He was also a member of the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at Louisiana Tech, where he was a dean's list student.

Zach and his wife Susan, a teacher at Buckeye High School, live in Pineville.

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Doug Ireland-Sports Information Director In charge of athletic media relations at his alma mater since January of 1989, Doug Ireland coordinates publicity efforts for Northwestern's 14 intercollegiate sports teams through local, regional and national media outlets in print, broadcast, television and the internet.

He also serves in the volunteer role of executive director of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, housed in Prather Coliseum at NSU. Ireland assumed that post in April 1991.

His 1992 Demon Football Media Guide won "Best in the Nation" in Division I-AA from the College Sports Information Directors of America. A 1997 story on Joe Delaney, "The Guy We Called Joe D," won a national second-place award in a COSIDA writing contest. Ireland has won numerous awards as SID from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association.

Several of his assistant SIDs and graduate assistants have advanced to prominence in media fields. Former NSU sports information staffers under Ireland include Bruce Ludlow, assistant commissioner of the Southland Conference for media relations; Bill Magrath, media relations manager for the Sports Business Daily; Mike Morrison, co-editor of the ESPN Information Please Almanac; Daucy Crizer, SID at Lamar; Dart Volz, SID at Southeastern Louisiana; Melissa Reynaud, assistant SID at LSU; Kenny Lannou, assistant SID at Kansas State; and Troy Mitchell,  SID at Henderson State. Dustin Eubanks, NSU's director of NCAA compliance, worked in the NSU SID office as a graduate assistant and for two years as the fulltime assistant. In 1981-82, while an undergraduate at Northwestern, Ireland worked as chief of the Shreveport Times Natchitoches Bureau, coordinating news coverage of an eight-parish region along the Red River. From 1982-85, he was assistant SID at Southwestern Louisiana, working with a men's basketball program that made three straight postseason tournament appearances. He won CoSIDA publications and writing awards while at USL. Ireland was the sports editor of the Natchitoches Times in 1985-86 and attended graduate school at Northeast Louisiana before joining the Alexandria Town Talk sports staff in 1987. In 18 months at the Town Talk, he covered both NSU and LSU sports and won 15 writing awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers' Association.

In 2001, the LSWA presented its prestigious Mac Russo Award to Ireland for his contributions to the organization. In 1999, Ireland was awarded honorary membership in the Graduate N Club at NSU by the university's group of athletic lettermen for his service to Northwestern and its athletic program, and in 2003 he was given full membership. He was appointed by President Dr. Randall Webb to serve a two-year term on the inaugural University Planning Council in 1997-99.

A member of the Blue Key National Honor Fraternity and a student government senator while completing a journalism degree from Northwestern, Ireland was editor of the student newspaper "Current Sauce" as a sophomore before going to work for the Shreveport Times.He was an all-district baseball player and the student body president at Jonesboro-Hodge High School, where he was a wingback for the Tigers' 1977 Class AA state football finalists coached by Don Shows.
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Matthew Bonnette,
Assistant Sports Information Director

Matthew Bonnette-Assistant Sports Information Director Matthew Bonnette joined the sports information staff in August 2003 after spending a year as sports information director at Henderson State in Arkansas. 

Bonnette surpervises all layouts and design work for all media guides and is the primary media contact for the NSU baseball, women’s basketball and volleyball teams.

A 2002 graduate of McNeese State University, Bonnette is no stranger to the SID field as he is the son of longtime McNeese SID Louis Bonnette. Matthew's older brother, Michael, is the sports information director at LSU.

While at McNeese, Bonnette served two years as the sports editor of the school’s newspaper.  He also worked as both a volunteer and student sports information director while being employed at KPLC-TV as the commercial production manager where he won several advertising awards for his work.

      He is married to the former Colene Lanier of Lake Charles and the couple has two daughters, 5-year-old Haley and Katelyn, who will turn two in November.
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