FIELD TWP- Many North Woods boys basketball fans might swear that senior Jonah Burnett soars like an eagle when he floats down the lane for a shot, and an Eagle is what he will be for the next four years after signing a letter of intent to play for the University of Northwestern-St. Paul (UNW) Eagles.
Grizzlies Head Coach Andrew Jugovich served as master of ceremonies for the well-attended ceremony on Friday and offered high praise for Burnett, who led the team to a 22-6 record while scoring 813 points as the eighth best scorer among all Minnesota players.
“Jonah, as your coach for the past two years, I want to congratulate you,” Jugovich said. “You have been a staple of this program for years and without you our record and just our whole ability of being able to play against high competition would not have been as good.”
Burnett was a force to be reckoned with this season, leading the team in scoring, rebounding, points in transition and points off turnovers, total minutes played, and was second in assists. And he did all that against teams whose game plans focused on stopping him.
But as he’s done throughout his career, Burnett was quick to credit the play of his teammates as a major reason for his success.
“It definitely took a lot of pressure off of me because I wasn’t worried about scoring as much as possible when I have teammates I can rely on,” Burnett said. “So I’m glad they stepped up this year and got a lot better from last year because we needed them. Defensively, rebounding, and everything else, they stepped up and I’m thankful for teammates like that.”
Since he first stepped on the court for organized basketball in third grade, Burnett has seen a fair number of coaches, and several have left lasting impressions on him.
“In my elementary years with the Nett Lake Eagles program Brandon Benner was always a really good coach, he really cared about us,” Burnett said. “And then Will Kleppe did a good job helping me become a better basketball player, and Jugovich was also good at that, too.”
But there’s one coach who’s been on the sidelines the whole time, pushing him, encouraging him, supporting him, and that’s his dad, Tom Burnett.
“It’s been really nice to have my dad always there teaching me new stuff,” he said. “It’ll be a little bit different in college.”
The elder Burnett has enjoyed every minute of being a part of Jonah’s development.
“It’s been a blast,” Tom said. “I’ve been able to coach him since third grade, not only him but all of his friends, too. It’s good to see how well they all get along together and they’re best of friends. The basketball part was fun, but more important are the friendships and relationships we built, and the stuff you can teach them through basketball, hard work and dedication and those sorts of things. It’s been wonderful, and I’m going to miss it.”
Burnett has also honed his skills playing club basketball in the off-season with the Wisconsin Playmakers basketball program in Superior, Wis.
“That’s really helped a lot, playing so much more than we do in the season,” Burnett said. “In (the high school) season we only play about 28 to 30 games, and in club ball you’ll be playing close to 50 to 80 games a season, and the competition is a lot better, too, down in the cities or wherever we’re at.”
Burnett had one more game on tap this week, Wednesday’s Border Battle All-Star game in Duluth, where he was teamed up with a duo from Cherry’s state-championship team, Isaac Asuma and Noah Sundquist, against some of the best ballers from Wisconsin in the charity game.
And then his sights will be set on UNW, a private Christian university with about 3,400 students that competes at the NCAA Division III level. UNW was Burnett’s top pick among several options for the opportunity to continue to grow in his faith.
“The number one thing I look forward to with that program is that they make Jesus the center of the program, which I really like doing,” he said. “That’s basically the main reason why I considered going there and then also their history of performing well.”
And indeed, Burnett will be stepping into a high-powered program at UNW. In 23 seasons under Coach Tim Grosz, the Eagles have won 16 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference regular season titles and 13 tournament championships. The team once notched a string of seven consecutive appearances in the NCAA Division III tournament, including a Sweet 16 run, and has had a total of nine tourney bids, the most recent in 2022. UNW also has won two National Christian College Tournament championships.
There was an undercurrent of excitement in his voice as Grosz talked about Burnett joining the Eagles.
“He’s just an outstanding player, hard worker, great teammate, very versatile both offensively and defensively, he’ll be able to guard a lot of different positions, which is great,” Grosz said. “And he has the skill set to be able to get downhill and get to the rim, and he handles the ball well, shoots it well, so he really fits well. We like to do motion offensive basketball, taking advantage of player strengths, taking advantage of matchups, so we’re really thrilled to have him in our program the next four years and just see how he does.”
Burnett said he plans to major in kinesiology with a pre-physical therapy emphasis. With full certification in physical therapy requiring a doctorate these days, he said for now he’ll concentrate on the pre-physical therapy program and see how that works for him first and evaluate his career options later.
“If I like it, then maybe I’ll go on for the extra schooling,” he said.