Head Coach Track & Field

Bio

David Burnett enters his fourth year as Iowa Western's Head Track & Field Coach in 2025-26. Coach Burnett is in his 20th year of coaching track and field. In his first 3 years as Head Coach at IWCC, he has led the women’s team to 3 National Championships. 

In 2025 Indoor and Outdoor, and 2024 Indoor and was named USTFCCCA National Coach of the Year. 

Both squads swept USTFCCCA Scholar Team of the Year for indoor and outdoor. Juliana Sakat was named Women’s Track Scholar Athlete of the Year for Indoor and Outdoor and Mercy Honesty Women’s Field Scholar Athlete of the Year for Indoor. Placed 18 men, 10 women on All All-Academic team. 

In July, Coach Burnett was selected to attend the prestigious USA Track and Field Podium Camp held at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California. A high-performance camp aimed to help coaches guide athletes to make World and Olympic teams. 

The Men have finished 3rd on four occasions, 2025 outdoor, 2025 indoor, 2024 outdoor and 2023 indoor. In fact, the men’s and women’s squads have finished top 5 in the nation every season with Burnett as Head Coach. They won the triple crown for the Region 11 titles for the first time in school history in cross country, indoor and outdoor track with both squads in 2024. 

Also in 2025, Burnett coached Nikkolai Kennedy, representing Barbados, to the semi-finals in the 60m hurdles at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing, China. 7 NJCAA records have been broken in his tenure. 

Coach Burnett and staff have helped the squad to a combined 26 individual National Champions, 244 All-Americans, 104 Region 11 Champions, and 51 school records. 

USTFCCCA Midwest Region awards were given in 2025 outdoor to Mercy Honesty Women’s Field Athlete of the Year, Juliana Sakat Women’s Track Athlete of the Year, and Barnabas Ndiwa Men’s Track Athlete of the Year. 

In the Indoor season, Juliana Sakat was named USTFCCCA Midwest Region Women’s Track Athlete of the Year. 

Geofrey Ronoh was named Male Track Athlete of the Meet at the 2024 Outdoor National Championships. 

Honesty, along with Ronoh, were named 2024 USTFCCCA Midwest Region Indoor Athletes of the Year. 

Miracle Ailes was the 2023 USTFCCCA National Field Athlete of the Year by the USTFCCCA. In 2023, both squads won the NJCAA Academic Team of the Year. 

Burnett has been named USTFCCCA Midwest Coach of the Year 6 times, ICCAC Coach of the Year nine times and has coached 10 ICCAC Athlete of the Year winners. 11 country records have been broken in his tenure. 

Coach Burnett spent a pair of years in the private sector coaching a range of athletes from youth to professional. He has been the speed and strength coach for 2022 Beijing Winter Olympian Kellie Delka, who competes in the skeleton for Puerto Rico. He is also is the speed and conditioning coach of XFL wide receiver and former Washburn University All-American JJ Brania Hopp.

He coached Jordan Andrade to selection for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games in the 400m hurdles, competing for Cape Verde. Andrade also participated in the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene. 

Burnett also coached Alex Donigian to break the Armenian national record in the 60m and 100m dash, a 3rd place finish at the Balkan Championships and a selection for the Tokyo Olympic Games as an alternate.

He spent the 2020-21 season as a volunteer assistant coach at Southern Methodist University (SMU). While at SMU, he helped coach the Sprints, Hurdles and Relays. The Mustangs broke 4 school records in the 100m hurdles, 400m, 400m hurdles, and 4x4 Relay. Five athletes qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships and earned All-American certificates.

Coach Burnett spent 4 years at The University of North Texas coaching sprints, horizontal jumps, and relays. Notable accomplishments were: School records in the women’s outdoor 200m,400m, women’s indoor 60m,200m, 400m. C-USA Conference Champions in the women’s 400m outdoor, women’s indoor long jump. Karlington Anunagba finished runner-up in the 60m, posting the 2nd fastest mark in school history in 6.73. Aneesa Scott was a 3-time C-USA All Conference winner, posting personal bests indoors of 23.86 200m, and 53.86 400m, outdoor 23.43 200m, 53.13 400m outdoors. The men’s 4x100 relay team in 2018, consisting of Porter, Jones, Delacruz and Campbell, finished 13th at the NCAA Outdoor Championships First Round. 

The men’s 4x100m relay team of Porter, Jones, Delacruz and Cole finished second at the C-USA Outdoor Conference Championships and the foursome registered the sixth best time in school history in 39.96 seconds to finish seventh at the Texas Relays. Porter, Delacruz, and Jones went on to finish 5th, 7th and 8th, respectively, in the 100m dash to place three runners in the top eight in a CUSA Conference Championship final for the first time in school history. Breanna Eckels was a NCAA First Round qualifier 3 times, CUSA Champion, and 2-time CUSA 2nd place in the long jump. During the 2019 indoor season, Alia Holmes broke the school record in the 200m dash at the Texas Tech Classic in 23.81 seconds and claimed the second fastest 60m dash in school history in 7.48 seconds. Holmes went on to finish 7th in the 60m and 3rd in the 200m at the CUSA Indoor Conference Championships. He also recruited top talent to UNT in Samir Williams, Taylor Blackshire, Lyric Choice, Joseph Squire, and Valencia Bullock. All of whom would go on to be school record holders, NCAA First Round competitors, and/or CUSA All-conference performers. 

Burnett also helped start the huddle for Fellowship of Christian Athletes at UNT.

At Western Washington, Burnett spent 4 years as the top assistant coach. He helped produce a DII power by earning 5 Great Northwest Athletic Conference championships (two men’s indoor, three men’s outdoor). Burnett was the 2014 USTFCCCA West Region Assistant Coach of the Year, leading the Vikings to five top 25 NCAA team finishes. Coached 10 student-athletes to All-America honors while overseeing 27 GNAC champions and five USTFCCCA Academic All-America honorees. His athletes broke school records in the men's and women’s 60m, 60m hurdles, men's 100m, men's 200m, men's 400m indoors, men's indoor and outdoor 4x400 relay, men's 110m hurdles, women's 100m hurdles, women's 3000m steeplechase, women's 1500m, men's long jump and women's triple jump and high jump. Burnett’s most notable athletes included Alex Donigian, the NCAA Indoor Championship runner-up in the 60m in 2015 and a five-time All-American, and Katelyn Steen, a seven-time All-American in cross country, 3000m steeplechase, 3000m, and 5000m and a 2016 Olympic trials qualifier in the 3000m steeplechase. 

Helped coach the cross country team to national success. At the Cross Country National Championships, the women finished 12th place in 2014, 18th place in 2013 National Championships, men finished 20th place in 2014, 13th place in 2013, and 21st place in 2012. 

Burnett was selected as a recipient for the President's Excellence Award twice at WWU.

Before Western Washington, Burnett spent five seasons (2007-11) as an assistant coach at his alma mater, UTSA, earning Southland Conference Assistant Coach of the Year honors all five seasons. During his UTSA tenure, the Roadrunners won seven conference team track championships (five indoor and two outdoor). He coached 18 NCAA Midwest Regional recipients, 20 Southland Conference champions, and 12 school record setters. Burnett was the staff sponsor for The Fellowship of Christian Athletes and was highly involved with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC).

Athletes Burnett has coached include: sprinter Teddy Williams, who competed in Super Bowl L and played for six NFL teams since 2010. Williams was inducted in the UTSA Hall of Fame in 2024, a four-time All-American who reached the semifinals in the 100 meters at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials and holds the 17th fastest all-conditions 100m mark in NCAA history at 9.90w. Burnett signed Keyunta Hayes, the No. 1 Hurdler in the nation out of high school, who went on to finish as the 2011 SLC champion in the 400m hurdles, third place in the 110m hurdles and runner-up honors indoors in the 60m hurdles. William Vesse, a four-time SLC champion in the 110m hurdles, finished fourth in the 2008 Nigerian Olympic Trials. Jessica Jones who was a four-time SLC Champion in the 100m and 60m hurdles. Gaston Griffin was an NCAA Midwest finalist and multiple-time SLC champion in the 400m. He helped recruit several athletes across event disciplines that would go on to earn All-America Awards and over 20 individual conference championships. 

In 2009, the UTSA Athletic Department created the David Burnett Roadrunner Pride Award to honor hard-working student-athletes showing dedication and school pride.

Began his coaching career in 2006 as a volunteer coach with the women’s cross-country team working under former UTSA Distance Coach Rose Monday, who is heavily involved in Team USA, serving on global staffs at the Olympics in 2012,2016 ad Assistant Coach and,2020 as Team USA Olympic Head Coach. 

A former student-athlete at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), Burnett earned the inaugural Southland Conference Steve McCarty Citizenship Award as a senior as the top overall student-athlete in the conference. As a senior, he helped the Roadrunners to its 1st SLC Indoor Conference Championship in school history. A team captain, he was a 10-time all-conference performer, winning the 400m at the SLC Conference Indoor meet in 2005. Burnett was a two-time NCAA Midwest Regional qualifier, a four-time member of the SLC Commissioners Honor Roll, an NCAA Inspiration Award nominee, and a semifinalist for the John Wooden Golden Cup Inspiration Award. He served as the president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and SAAC and was selected to represent the Southland Conference at the SAAC National Conference.

Earned a bachelor's degree at UTSA, majoring in kinesiology. Attended the World Athletics Global Athletics Coaching Academy. He is a Certified Sports Nutritionist, Personal Trainer and Corrective Exercise Specialist through the International Sports Science Association, USA Weightlifting Sports Performance certification, USA Track and Field Level 1 certification, and USTFCCCA Strength and Conditioning Specialist certification.

Graduate of Mary Carroll High School in Corpus Christi, Texas ranked 11th nationally in the 100m in 2002. Texas State Championships, 7th place in the 4x100m relay. 2002 South Texas High School Athlete of the Year. USA Junior Championships semifinalist in the 100m dash in 2002. He and his wife Jessica have 3 children.