Matthew Bonnette, a
2002 graduate of McNeese in mass communication, was named Assistant Athletics Director for Sports Information in the summer of 2012, replacing his father, Louis, who retired that summer after a remarkable 46-year career as the school’s only SID.
He was promoted to Associate AD for Communications and Digital Media in the summer of 2021 and Senior Associate AD in the spring of 2023. He's the sport administrator for the track & field and cross country programs and oversees the sports information office and all ESPN+ broadcasting and production as well as department production projects.
Bonnette serves as the primary contact for the Cowboys football and men's basketball teams as well as the track and field programs.
A Lake Charles native and LaGrange High School graduate (1990), Bonnette was named the Southland Conference's Louis Bonnette Media Award recipient for 2024, an award that is nominated and voted on by his colleagues within the Southland Conference. He was presented the prestigious Mac Russo Award by the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) in 2021.
Bonnette was awarded the Fred S. Stabley Sr. Writing Contest Award in District 6 by CoSIDA in 2018 in the General Feature of the Year category for his story on two-sport athlete (football and baseball) Austin Nelson who battled through, and overcome a brain tumor. He also won first place in the LSWA Writing Contest in the Division I Release category while his 2017 McNeese Football Media Guide won third place.
Overall, Bonnette has won 30 awards by the LSWA and CoSIDA in his 23 years in the profession.
Prior to returning home to his alma mater, Bonnette spent nine years at Northwestern State as an associate SID where he worked closely with the NSU women's basketball and baseball teams, and before going to NSU, he served one year as the SID at Henderson State, a NCAA Division II school in Arkadelphia, Arkansas.
Bonnette is a member of CoSIDA, NCBWA (National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association), USBWA (United States Basketball Writers Association) as well as the Louisiana Sports Writers Association. He's a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame Selection Committee and has edited and produced the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony Program since 2003. He's also been a voter for the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 football national poll since 2012.
His brother, Michael, is Associate AD for Communications at LSU.
Before getting into the sports information profession, Bonnette spent several years as the commercial production manager for KPLC-TV in Lake Charles and in 2000, earned the “Best of Show” ADDY award for his commercial promoting McNeese football season tickets.
Bonnette is married to the former Colene Lanier of Lake Charles and the couple has two daughters, Haley, who is a McNeese graduate and local school teacher, and Katelyn, a who is a junior at Northwestern State University and is involved in the theatre program.
Haley married Jake Snyder on Aug. 19, 2023. Katelyn starred as Morticia in the ACTS Theatre musical The Addams Family in August 2023 and spent the 2024 summer as a costume designer at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio.
He and Colene have two dogs (Chewie and Bailey) and a cat (Nugget).
