WARR ACRES – Putnam City coach and 2008 alum Brandon Jackson isn’t a fan of coaching against his cousin, 2009 alum and best friend Xavier Henry.

“I don’t like it,” Jackson said after his Pirates routed Henry’s U.S. Grant squad, 80-36, Tuesday (Dec. 17). “That that’s my best friend, so I don’t like it at all, but I love what he’s doing over there. 
He’s doing a great job. I hope he wins every game except for when he plays me.”

MORE: Pirates cap Alumni Night with blowout of Grant

Henry is well known: McDonald’s All-American, a Jayhawk at college power Kansas and an first-round NBA draft pick.

On Tuesday, he played a different role – a first-year head coach trying to turn around a U.S. Grant basketball program that hasn’t had a winning season in two decades and has now lost 28 straight games dating back to February 2023.

For his part, Henry found being on the visitor’s bench to be a very “different experience. “

“I never thought I’d experience it,” Henry said of coaching against his alma mater.

Henry playfully disagrees with Jackson not enjoying the experience.

“He probably likes beating me down a little bit,” Henry said with a chuckle. “Or, that’s what he doesn’t like doing is beating me down. I got to appreciate it but at the same time, it’s his job.”

Jackson has stated he does enjoy playing in the east gym where both helped Pirate teams win state championships. Henry agrees.

“I love that they played in this gym and they started playing in this gym this year because the little gym doesn’t have the same feel to it,” Henry said.

Jackson and Henry both played under legendary Putnam City coach A.D. Burtschi, whose widow, Jacque, was honored by the school at halftime on the court named after her late husband.

“We had this planned out for about a couple of months. We wanted to honor Mrs. Burtschi for the fact that, she did so much for us and, we never said thank you to her, we always said thank you to coach.

“So, we thought it was a good night, especially with me and Xavier coaching against each other that, we can get a lot of guys together and do something really nice for her.”

Henry praised Jacque Burtschi for her sacrifice as a coach’s wife.

“Letting Coach Burtschi spend all those nights and days and so many hours where he could be home being a great husband to impact I don’t know how many lives, probably countless, not even just basketball players but students,” Henry said. “That that deserves the most praise of the night.”

Henry, who spent time in the NBA with Memphis, New Orleans and the Los Angeles Lakers, considers A.D. Burtschi the best coach he ever had.

“You talk about somebody really caring about me and other players as people and teaching us like how to be better men rather than will win ball games,” Henry said of Burtschi, who retired in 2016. “He taught us everything. 
There’s so many lessons I take them just from being a respectful God-loving man and then being able to raise better young men.”

Henry recalls the hardest practices he ever had were on that same floor at Original.

“It was because I went through what I went through here, and he put us through that, when I went to all these other places, oh, I was set,” Henry said. “I was always in shape. I was already thinking whenever they said something, I would never had that attitude of like, oh, this is gonna be hard.”

Henry, like Jackson at Putnam City, is now putting both on-the-court and off-the-court lessons in place at his school.

“We’re just trying to get off off the ground, but at the same token, we understand what we’re here for, and it’s not to win so many basketball games. 


“We would be so well served to help these guys be much better men in life than to try to come here and win 25 basketball games.

“I want them to get scholarships. I want these guys to develop great habits and just great work ethic to where they start understanding the results will come.”

ALUMNI ON AND OFF THE FLOOR

Several other alumni were featured Tuesday including Randi Brown (’22, PCTV broadcaster), Sequoya Benton (’10, PC Groundbreakers sponsor), Jeremy Coleman (’07, Sports Information and Public Address Announcer), Hunter Gibson (’10, PC assistant coach), Jerrod Gatz (’07, PC Athletic Director), Ronnie Hishaw (’06, U.S. Grant assistant coach), Lashawn Jones (’11, PC athletic counselor), JoJo McNeal. (’06, In-Game DJ), Jarel Miles (’86, official scorekeeper), Valeria Saldana (’20, Gate and concessions), Emily Stanfill (Martin) (’07, National Anthem), Andrew Twichell (’09, PC assistant principal), Ernie Wright (’99, OKC Public Schools Athletic Director) and Porsche’ Young (’10, PC Girls Head Basketball Coach).