Interview: Brett Bonnaffons eyes long-awaited winning season for Bonnabel

Brett Bonnaffons welcomes challenges.

Entering his third year as the head coach at Bonnabel, the Bruins coach has his struggling program on track to being a winner once again.

Speaking on All Access on 106.1 FM Wednesday night, Bonnaffons talked about being very familiar with rebuilding efforts, having previously served as the head coach at Riverdale and Pope John Paul II.

“When we arrived at Riverdale and Pope John Paul, they had had a little bad luck,” Bonnaffons said. “We were able to do some things there. Taking those lessons and bringing them to Bonnabel, it’s been an interesting run. Bonnabel had not had a successful season since 2012. It was a little bit of a change we had to do but I think our coaching staff and our players have done a great job.”

A year ago, Bonnaffons guided the Bruins to a 5-5 season, which included a one-point loss to rival East Jefferson and coach Frank Allelo for the second straight year. The Warriors won 28-27 in 2018 and 41-40 in 2019.

“I love Frank but I’m tired of hearing about the blue school,” Bonnaffons said. I’ve got to call them the blue school. That’s our rival now. I don’t want to say their name. With all due respect, I love Frank, he’s a great coach but I have to say the blue school.”

The 2019 contest was an epic battle that will be remembered for many years to come.

“I think last year’s game, if I wasn’t coaching in it, I would have watched it 15 times,” Bonnaffons said. “It was a fantastic football game. Losing by one point two straight years really hurts. We have a couple of Bonnabel alumni on the coaching staff that it really affects.”

The bad news is that Bonnabel lost four key players to graduation who signed to play at the next level, including quarterback Torrance Bardell, along with Jonathan Brock, Deaune Nicholas and Joseph Taranto.

“We had a bunch of kids who bought in to what our coaching staff was doing and we were very athletic,” Bonnaffons said. “We had four kids sign. To have that type of success for our senior class is amazing. We had a receiver offered by several schools who ended up signing in junior college for basketball. To see that success is amazing and to jump to five wins tied for the most wins for Bonnabel since 1998.”

The good news is that there are good players returning.

“When it comes to pure athleticism, I’m fairly sure we’re better this year than last year,” Bonnaffons said. “We lose a tremendous amount of experience. Anytime you lose a kid who had 5,000 to 6,000 total yards in his career, to me, that’s one of the top two quarterbacks in Bonnabel history. I don’t want to discount anything Mr. (Tommy) Wilcox did. Torrance was great.”

“We lose a 1,000 yard rusher in Nicholas but we return four out of five starters on the offensive line and the only new starter actually started twice last year,” Bonnaffons said. “We have a kid who didn’t play for us last year but played basketball in junior Jonathan Powell and sophomore Nester Perez. One of them will be our starting quarterback. Both are extremely athletic kids who can run.”

Bonnaffons likes his receivers as well, including Assumption transfer Dorian Bailey.

“He has a chance to be phenomenal,” Bonnaffons said. “I think we will be surprising this year on offense.

While the offense may surprise, the strength of the Bruins in 2020 should be defense.

“Defensive tackle Rahmad Jackson transferred from Rummel,” Bonnaffons said. “He weighs about 280 pounds and he is a college prospect. He’s a senior and we’re very light on seniors with only about six senior starters. We are junior heavy and that class is real good. We have a safety transfer Danik Reed, who has a chance to play baseball or football at the next level. Josh Barton returns and he has gained weight and is 6-foot-4.”

Not having an offseason or the ability to work together as a team has been tough.

“It’s been really hard because of the lack of experience,” Bonnaffons said. “We have all new receivers and two new quarterbacks and you can’t get timing down. We have two new running backs and we can’t work reads or mesh the handoffs. It’s all about timing when you are an inexperience team. It’s almost impossible to progress without repetition.”

Would Bonnaffons prefer a longer regular season with a reduced number of teams in the playoffs or a full playoff field of 32 in Class 5A?

“I’m always going to say play with the full playoffs,” Bonnaffons said. “There were six or seven teams that made it into the second round that were in the 20’s in terms of seeds.”

District 8-5A again goes through John Ehret in 2020.

“We were 4-3 in district last year,” Bonnaffons said. “We improved last year and had a chance in two other games. I think this year, John Ehret is still going to be loaded. They are definitely the class of the league. Chalmette is always going to be athletic and very well coached. You have so much turnover in Jefferson Parish.”

The league features solid head coaches in new situations.

“Myself and Frank Allelo are the longest tenured coaches,” Bonnaffons said. “ I’ve only been here three years. Willie Brooks (West Jefferson) is an amazing coach. Kyle Walker at Riverdale coordinated a great offense at Chalmette. Coach (Tom) Lavigne at Higgins has Bryant Holmes, a former head coach at Grace King, as an assistant. Our district is improving. We have a chance to surprise a lot of people this year. I’m very excited about it.”

How important is it for the football season to take place for Bonnabel and for all schools throughout the state?

“I read a lot,” Bonnaffons said. “I read a statistic in a medical journal in May that said that on a normal basis, 17 to 25 percent of high school students experience depression symptoms. As of May, it said that number jumped to 68 percent because of everything that’s going on. At a school like Bonnabel where you have kids that come from every walk of life, I think as close as you can get to normalcy for them is going to be the most important thing.”

Bonnaffons feels being together as a team once again will work wonders.

“If we can get our kids on to the field and showing them that the world is not as bad as everybody thinks it is, that the world is getting back to some kind of normalcy, the kids can become more comfortable,” Bonnaffons said.

It has been an eye-opening experience for Bonnaffons at Bonnabel.

“I didn’t really know about Bonnabel when I got here but I’m learning a lot about the economic status our kids have to deal with,” Bonnaffons said. “They have to deal with a lot. To tell them that you have no chance to go to college because you’re not playing this year, that’s a lot.

“I’m hoping we can play. We have a lot of kids in Jefferson Parish and Orleans Parish who need this to go to the next level, who need this for self esteem, who need this to learn how to be a team player. As grown men, we’ll be fine. There will always be next season. There will always be another team. That is not the case for our seniors.”

Every player and coach shares that sentiment. Now, we wait, hope and pray.