Sonny Wilson joins Burnet CISD staff

Sonny Wilson is the latest coach to join the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District athletic department.

He will coach Burnet Middle School football, girls basketball and track.

“My family and I are truly excited and grateful for this opportunity, and I’m eager to get to work,” he wrote on his social media. “The chance to return to the community where I grew up and pour into the lives of the next generation is something incredibly meaningful to me. It’s more than just a job, it’s a homecoming and a chance to give back to the place that helped shape me.”

Athletic director Grant Freeman noted the many reasons why Wilson is a good fit.

“I think he has a passion for kids, specifically Burnet kids,” he said. “He’s walked those hallways,” Freeman said. “That also means something to kids in a different way.”

Wilson’s passion for helping children reach their dreams and goals in sports is well known. He started Next Level Sports, a youth organization where players of all ages could play select ball and get better.

At around the same time, he was coaching at Faith Academy where he was an assistant on head coach Stephen Shipley’s football staff and on girls basketball coach Kat Canada’s staff. Then he accepted a position to join the Marble Falls High School staff where he spent two years. He was an assistant on former boys basketball head coach Travis Crain’s staff. When he announced he had joined the Marble Falls staff, Wilson said it was an opportunity to better take care of his family.

But at the end of the 2024-25 school year, Wilson answered a call from Georgetown head coach Rhonda Farney, a legend in girls basketball. She ranks in the top 10 of all-time victories among high school coaches nationally with more than two decades of 20-win seasons and more three decades of advancing to the playoffs.

Though Farney was familiar with Wilson’s ability to coach the Xs and Os, she wanted to to know more about his demeanor during games, how well he works with staff members, families and others, and why his athletes are successful.

He helped several graduates, including Burnet’s MaeSyn Gay and Zaria Solis, secure collegiate scholarships.

Satisfied with the answers, Farney offered Wilson a job on her staff, an offer he couldn’t refuse though it meant saying good-bye to some Mustangs he had grown especially close to.

“(Farney) told me a lot of the girls wouldn’t be where they are without me and my program,” Wilson said. “She’s been a huge mentor of mine for awhile.”

Freeman saw the same qualities when he met Wilson.

“Sometimes you can tell with people,” he said. “They’re kid magnets. When they interact with other people, they’re infectious. Their energy is always infectious. It’s one of the qualities you look for. You can tell he has that about him. And it’s to another level because it’s Burnet CISD. He’s an energy giver and not an energy taker.”

It’s been a busy summer for Next Level, which assembled teams in basketball, track and field and flag football. The organization now turns its attention to fall football.

Meanwhile, the Burnet CISD athletic department is wrapping up a busy summer, too, where it made numerous hires. Freeman was among them along with Kim Duncan-Payten as the girls basketball head coach and Doug Ketcham as the girls soccer head coach. Jayci Craig was promoted from the middle school to head team tennis and softball coach.

Freeman said those hires and promotions illustrate the department is moving in a direction where its coaches stay for awhile.

“We want to hire impactful people, who leave an imprint,” he said. “We’ve now set a standard of what we’re looking for.”