Former La Roche men’s basketball guard Evan Bonnaure will be extending his basketball career in Eastern PA. He recently accepted a graduate assistant position at East Stroudsburg University. Bonnaure will serve two years as a paid assistant coach on the men’s basketball team and will be pursuing his Masters Degree in Exercise Science.
Bonnaure grew up around coaching and knew that he wanted to join the ranks of his father and Coach Carmichael. He visited three Division I and II schools and met with coaching staffs and watched workouts. Bonnaure was put into contact with East Stroudsburg by friend Mike Lamberti who played at West Liberty and is currently a GA at NCAA Division II Embry Riddle. East Liberty Head Coach Jeff Wilson invited Bonnaure to campus and after being one of three finalists , Bonnaure was offered the position and accepted.
Bonnaure originally had his sights set on landing a job at a Division I school. However after much consideration, the opportunity to work with a coach as distinguished as Jeff Wilson was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Coach Wilson has a career record of 271-157 and has led the Warriors to two PSAC titles and 4 NCAA tournament appearances. Coach Wilson also serves as the chair of the NCAA Division II Men’s basketball committee.
Additionally, Bonnaure chose East Stroudsburg because Coach Wilson is giving him more responsibilities than many other GA positions typically offer. These included recruiting and running individual workouts.
“I’ve been very fortunate throughout my life to have a great basketball background that has led me to this opportunity”, said Bonnaure. “I was basically raised in the gym with my father serving as a high school coach for 26 years which really sparked my love for basketball and interest in coaching. I grew up with an inside look at how rewarding coaching can be and how to build and sustain a winning program.”
“I was also very fortunate to have chosen LRC for my collegiate career. Coach Carmichael, Coach Bott, and the entire staff are some of the best around at pregame preparation, recruiting, and building relationships with their players which I believe will give me a significant advantage in starting my own coaching career. I have been blessed to have played for a number of great coaches during my playing career and that without a doubt inclined me to go into coaching myself.”
Coach Carmichael was thrilled to see the 2016-17 AMCC All-Conference Third Teamer join the coaching ranks.
“It has been a pleasure watching Evan grow on and off the court”, said Carmichael. “He is by far the player who improved the most during his four years in college during my time being head coach at La Roche. Whatever we spoke to Evan about during exit interviews he came back the next year and added that part of the game to his and accepted whatever role we gave him each year.”
“I am extremely proud of Evan for doing all this work on his own to obtain this coaching position. Evan is an extremely smart and hardworking student and he will do very well in grad school. I have no doubt that he will do well on the coaching side. We will miss him moving forward and wish him the best in all that he strives for and hope that he remembers he is always a Redhawk!”
http://larochesports.com/sports/mbkb/2016-17/releases/20170622g6swep
