CHRISTOPHER DABE
Published 12:00 am, Saturday, December 20, 2008
Matt Burnett gives what he insists is an honest reply to the most common question he hears these days.
“Am I happy? That’s what I get from most people who care about me,” said Burnett, who spent 15 seasons as the Port Neches-Groves head football coach and boys athletic director before a school board reassignment Nov. 25 put him in a less glamorous position.
Next football season, Burnett will be the school’s outdoor athletic complex coordinator and the student attendance officer. In other words, he’ll be the guy everyone turns to if the Jumbotron replay screen in the school’s $10.2 million stadium isn’t working, and he’ll also have to make sure kids go to class regularly.
So, once again, coach Burnett: Are you happy?
“Most people – a lot of old-timers – ask me that, and I say, ‘Yes, I’m happy,'” Burnett added when reached by phone Saturday as he vacationed in the Texas Hill Country. “And when I say that, the whole conversation turns to ‘great,’ as in, ‘You had a great career.'”
All told, Burnett spent the last 15 of his 22 seasons coaching at PN-G as the man in charge. He began at PN-G as an assistant coach and got the head job as a 36-year old.
One, Burnett wishes he coached a state championship team. The closest he came at PN-G was that 1999 squad that suffered a 28-18 loss to Stephenville in the Class 4A Division II state championship game.
Burnett recalled that six-game playoff run as one that included four games at the Astrodome. He remembered many of the more than 39,000 fans who filed into the Eighth Wonder of the World for the state final.
“I remember that because the fans really kind of rejuvenated what was here in the 1970s,” said Burnett, an all-state defensive end for PN-G in 1974. “It was neat to reignite that feeling of Purple Pride and for all those people to get on I-10 and go to Houston.”
Burnett’s other regret is that he was unable to give all team members equal playing time. He would like to have given every player the same chance he had as a PN-G student, which was to fully experience what he calls “something magical” about playing at the school.
“I think about the (players) over the years that weren’t quite talented enough to beat somebody else (for playing time) but they did everything we asked them to do,” Burnett said. “I wish we could have played every one, but it all goes back to winning.”
Which is something Burnett’s final PN-G team didn’t do much of. The Indians won two non-district games in the final minutes, but then a long layoff because of Hurricane Ike and a seven-game district season that yielded only one victory followed.
Burnett looks at his final season as one that included a few too many bad breaks. There was an overtime loss to Lumberton and late-game heartbreaks against Vidor and Ozen.
“In other years, the magic happened, and in any one of those games, we got the right break and we won,” Burnett said. “That didn’t happen this season.”
Burnett said he decided after the season to step away from coaching. He talked with the school board about other opportunities within the athletic department, and that’s what put him in the dual role of overseeing a stadium and students, he said.
Burnett toured Houston-area high school stadiums during the playoffs, and even attended Central’s fourth-round loss to Friendswood at the glitzy Woodforest Bank Stadium in The Woodlands.
Ask Burnett about Central’s running game or Friendswood’s passing attack, and he’ll tell you more about ticket takers, scoreboard operators, ushers and security guards.
“I never looked into the stands when I was coaching because I was always looking at the field,” said Burnett, who will oversee everything that happens off the field during PN-G football games next season.
So, yes, Burnett says he’s happy. You believe him because he says it so often. He’s satisfied with being in what he called a “support role” at PN-G.
“I’m happy with that ??? for now,” Burnett said. “Right now, I have no plans to coach, but that doesn’t mean it won’t change.”
