Men's Basketball Coaches
HEAD COACH KEN BURMEISTER
It truly was a starting over moment when Ken Burmeister accepted the basketball head coaching position at Incarnate Word. It was a time of renewal for Burmeister who had not coached in seven long years. And, it had to be a time of regeneration for the Cardinals who had not won a single conference game the year before and finished dead last in the league standings.
So, as the winner of more than 100 basketball games at the collegiate level, Burmeister returned to the profession he loves as the Incarnate Word coach.
Burmeister’s appointment was announced the first week of May, 2006, and there were smiles all around, on both sides of the issue.
Burmeister revels in coaching basketball and that is something he had not been able to do for the last few years. However he never quit talking the game, he never lost his myriad of hoops contacts, and he not once ceased attending games, seminars and clinics. This is his passion.
And all that wrapped together paid immediate dividends for UIW as the Cardinals finished with a season mark of 18-11 including three wins over crosstown rival St. Mary’s. At season’s end, with the second seed in the brand new Heartland Conference championship tournament, Burmeister’s Cardinals won their way to the final game.
From the Incarnate Word angle, the program needed a jump start, quickly, and Burmeister with all his acquaintances and friends in the business was a natural fit. At the announcement of his hiring, UIW Athletic Director Mark Papich was effusive in his words about Coach Burmeister.
“When Ken’s name came into the mix,” Papich said, “we knew that over the course of his career he had a proven record of success in tough situations. And that was a key factor in our selection process.”
Another factor cited by Papich was Burmeister’s way of doing business. “He possesses an infectious, positive, energy level which will be instrumental in his being successful with the UIW basketball program. Ken’s connections and his contacts, his network, is just outstanding which will allow him to go to work immediately, without delay.”
And go to work he did, immediately. In collegiate basketball, landing a job in May is way late in the crucial area of recruiting. But not to worry. Coach Burmeister and his staff hit the road and produced a group of seven new players.
And all the while, Coach Burmeister and his staff were running summer camps, helping to coordinate a coach’s clinic on campus, arranging a playing schedule for the year and talking to business community about financial support of the Cardinals.
Over the course of more than 30 years in collegiate basketball, Burmeister has been a head coach at three schools. His first head job was at the University of Texas / San Antonio where his four-year mark was 72-44 and included one trip to the NCAA Division I National Championships. That 1988 team finished 22-9 before losing to Illinois in the first round.
Burmeister’s second head job was at Loyola of Chicago and gave him the opportunity to relocate to his home territory of the upper Midwest.
Starting almost from scratch at Loyola, he moved his teams from a measly five wins the first year to a break even record in the fourth season. After that, he coached one year as the interim at Trinity University in San Antonio where his team went 16-9 and won two tournaments during the season.
In addition to his head jobs, Burmeister has worked 14 years as a collegiate assistant coach including stops at the University of Texas / Arlington, University of Iowa, University of Arizona and DePaul University. His efforts at those institutions were to be benefit of a who’s who among basketball coaches including the legendary Lute Olsen at both Iowa and Arizona and with the fabled Myers family at DePaul.
While keeping his hand in basketball, Burmeister for the past six years has worked in San Antonio as an account executive principally in the field of media and internet advertising.
The Twin Lakes, Wisc., native is a graduate of St. Mary’s University and holds a master’s degree from Northern Arizona University.
ASSISTANT COACH JAVASSE KEARNEY
Now into his second year as a staff person for Cardinals basketball, he continues to gather knowledge and information from the coaching side of Incarnate Word basketball after playing her as an undergraduate.
Javasse Kearney came to UIW as an unheralded freshman and by his senior year he was a starter in 25 of his 27 games played averaging nearly 30 minutes a night. Over his four years with UIW, his teams posted a cumulative mark of 77-33 including that 2002 trip to the NCAA D-II Midwest Regional semi-finals.
A native of San Antonio and a product of Cole High School, he earned his Incarnate Word degree in physical education.
ASSISTANT COACH PRINCE JOHNSON
After a year’s hiatus, Prince Johnson has returned to work with the Cardinals men’s basketball program while he finishes up his master’s degree at UIW.
Previously, he had put in four seasons as a member of the staff at Incarnate Word. Prior to that he had completed his bachelor’s degree in education in the summer of 2001.
A native of Lexington, Ky., Johnson played two years with Incarnate Word finishing his eligibility in the spring of 2000. Over those two campaigns, he started 47 of his 53 games. In 1999, his junior year, UIW advanced to the Elite Eight of the NAIA National Tournament. He shot an astounding .667 from the field setting a school record. That team was voted number one in the national.
he graduated from Lexington’s Tates Creek High School and then played two years at Texas’ Jacksonville Baptist JC. In high school, he was named one of the top five players in Kentucky and he was all-state while playing for a championship football team.
