Nick Schmidt, new Bryant assistant, excited to face father’s Bona team

Among the many duties shared between the four assistant coaches for Bryant Universitys mens basketball team are the scouting reports.

Nick Schmidt doesnt believe its a coincidence he drew the assignment to put together the report for Bryants next opponent.

The oldest of Mark and Anita Schmidts three sons, Nick entered the world of Division I basketball over the summer, joining the Bryant staff under coach Phil Martelli Jr.

On Sunday, Nick will sit on the opposing bench in his fathers building, the Reilly Center.

Coach Martelli purposely divvied up scouts.

He probably thought it out, Nick said.

I know the other assistants on the staff have scouts that they have connections with as well.

Im sure he knew that I watched a lot of Bonaventure games in my life, so it makes sense.

The last time Nick sat on that bench was as a standout guard at Alfred University, which plays an annual exhibition in the RC.

Now, hes coming back as a visiting coach.

Its going to be a little bit different, he said.

When I was playing at Alfred I went in there as a player and its a little different being an exhibition game and knowing you werent going to win the game.

But coaching against my dad, itll be a cool feeling.

I am excited for it, to see friends and family at the game, and I always grew up obviously being a Bonaventure fan, so competing against Bonaventure and my dad will be a little bit different, but Im excited.

Its going to be something that we talk about as a family for a long time; a good memory thatll hopefully be made this week.

ALL THREE Schmidt brothers played high school basketball at Olean for legendary coach Jeff Anastasia.

All three also played college ball at Alfred.

Derek, the middle of the three, is the one out of the basketball business working for Jostens, the memorabilia company known for caps and gowns and championship rings, in California.

Mike, the youngest, is a graduate assistant on the Bona coaching staff.

I kind of knew when I was young, Nick said of pursuing a coaching career.

Just being around my dad and his team and practices and traveling to games.

I knew I wanted to be a college basketball coach.

Nick says he initially envisioned a future at the Division III level, where he played.

Like his brother Mike, he started as a graduate assistant at Bona before joining the staff at D-III Catholic University (Washington, D.C.) for 2020-21.

The next three years, however, he worked at Putnam Science Academy (Conn.) as varsity team head coach and prep squad assistant.

At Putnam, he coached many soon-to-be Division I players.

Then he got the offer to join Martellis staff in Rhode Island.

As I got into it, I kind of wanted to coach the highest level and most talented players in the country or in the world, he said.

So I changed my direction and wanted to be a Division I head coach as my ultimate goal.

That started with my dad, just seeing how much commitment he had and how much love he had for the game and how detailed he was with everything that he did.

I really looked up to him and how he did things and how he carried himself as a person.

I wanted to help change young mens lives, to kind of make a difference, and if I could do that coaching basketball, that would be (the) best-case scenario because I really do love the game.

Of course, his new mentor, Martelli Jr.

is also a second-generation coach, having played for his father at Saint Josephs on the great Hawks teams of the early 2000s.

Martelli Jr.

and the younger Schmidt share a connection of fathers who went against each other in the Atlantic 10 for more than a decade.

SINCE STARTING the Bryant job in mid-June, Nicks duties have included working with players for individual workouts and team sessions over the summer, with an eye on player development.

In the school year, assistants track players academics (making sure theyre staying on top of their homework and upcoming assignments, Nick said), log players time in practice, the weight room or in games and generate scouting reports.

And then theres recruiting, where hes focused on New England prep and high schools, an area hes familiar with after his time at Putnam.

In his time there, Putnam had students from 37 different countries.

While coaching high-level players, he also taught classes and lived on campus.

It taught me how to really build relationships with different types of people from different countries that Ive never known people from, he said.

There were a lot of life lessons living on campus for three years and building relationships with the players on a coaching level, and I was teaching classes and I was doing room checks, so you see all different types of people; and these kids, some of them were 14, some of them were 20, so its a little bit different.

But being able to kind of have different faces when youre in the classroom and youre on the court and youre in the dorm, its a little bit difficult to balance those three kinds of faces youve got to have.

So kind of learning more about myself and how to handle those situations and relationships was the biggest thing.

AFTER BONAS victory over Mansfield Wednesday night, Mark Schmidt noted of his next opponent, I havent watched one second of them, but I talk to my son all the time and he tells me theyre pretty good.

For Nick in his still-young career, theres a balance between wanting to seek advice from his successful father and wanting to forge his own path.

I do ask him for a lot of advice, Nick said.

And I always kind of wanted to do it on my own.

He obviously has his connections, but I kind of wanted to work for it and build my own connections and kind of gain some respect instead of being Mark Schmidts son.

I wanted to do my own thing.

And I think its helped me.

But when it comes to asking my dad for advice, hes always said to go with your gut.

If you weigh all your options and kind of go with where your mind and your heart wants to go, its ultimately, most of the time going to work out for you.

Ive been lucky enough that its worked out for me in all the decisions Ive made so far, so Ive been very lucky..

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