By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — The world looked a lot different 19 years ago, especially at St. Bonaventure University.
The men’s basketball team was on a knife’s edge and the vacant head coach position was dubbed a ‘career killer.’
But Mark Schmidt, who had amassed an 82-90 record as the head coach at Robert Morris, decided to test the waters. He took control of a program left in disarray, and by the scruff of its neck pulled it out of the muck and the mire.
His career was not killed in the Reilly Center. It was made.
Now, 19 years later, as the winningest head coach in program history, he has officially announced his retirement.
“When I first got the job, I remember people telling me that it was a suicide job and that I was going to be here for three or four years, and then I was going to be selling insurance,” Schmidt said. “I give Steve Watson and Sister Margaret all the credit in the world. They took a chance on me 19 years ago. They allowed me to coach, and they allowed us to build this program. And, you know, I think what we’ve done is pretty good, and it’s pretty cool.”
Schmidt’s announcement came after his team’s regular season finale against Davidson on March 7. A game in which they fell 68-63, knocking their overall record below .500 for the first time this season. The struggles were the same against the Wildcats as they have been all season: crunch time errors.
Davidson went just 1-of-11 from the field to close out the game, but Bona’s own inability to score and grab critical offensive rebounds for a grand portion of the second half, meant that a comeback at the death would be all the more difficult.
“We break down,” Schmidt said. “We don’t get a foul shot block-out, or we miss a layup, and the talent isn’t there where we can allow those things to happen. You got to get that rebound, you got to make that layup. If you look back, that’s been the season. We’ve played well at times. We just can’t finish. … Some of it is luck, but some of it is our doing, that’s the frustrating part.”
Cayden Charles led the late comeback efforts for the Bonnies, throwing himself down the lane and getting to the free throw line in droves. He finished with a game-high 21 points to go along with 12 rebounds for a double-double.
“(Cayden’s effort was) tremendous, he’s been like that all year,” Schmidt said. “He epitomizes what we try to do, hard work. Guys that play hard, like that, good things happen. He played a fantastic game.”
St. Bonaventure’s Cayden Charles (24) goes up through contact for a layup against Davidson. Charles led the Bonnies with a 21-point, 12-rebound double-double in their loss to the Wildcats. (Derek Gumtow)
Charles was one of six Bona players that were honored prior to the game for Senior Day. Alongside him, Dasonte Bowen, Frank Mitchell, Daniel Egbuniwe, Amar’e Marshall and Broek Ostrom were celebrated. And while Schmidt admitted that the feeling surrounding Senior Days have changed over recent years, he credited the seniors that were here for all they have done for the program.
“It’s different with the whole portal thing and NIL,” Schmidt said. “But you still have to celebrate them. That’s the right thing to do. For seven months, they become a Bonnie, and once a Bonnie, always a Bonnie. So, it’s not the same, but they’re seniors, they’ve had good careers, even though it’s only been here for a year. They’ve given everything that we’ve asked of them.”
Schmidt himself has delivered on that front as well.
Over the course of the nearly two decades he was at the head of the bench, Schmidt brought Bona back into relevancy. Through thick and thin, he remained with the team and never got sick of it.
“People are like, ‘Why do you stay?’ and I always told them, ‘You can’t put it into words. You gotta see it. Once you see it, you’ll believe it,’” Schmidt said. “That’s what Bonaventure is, and that’s what Bonaventure has been to me. The basketball program here in Olean and Allegany, it’s the heartbeat.
“Skip Prosser, my guy, he once told me, ‘You got to be at a school for six or seven years, and then you got to get the hell out, because either they get tired of you or you get tired of them.’ But I never got tired.”
Schmidt is now eyeing a future away from the game of basketball. He plans on spending more time with his family, seeing the places he’s never been able to see with an unclouded mind.
“I don’t want to be in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank going around and seeing these beautiful places,” Schmidt said. “I want to travel the world. I told the team, if I’m just known as Coach Schmidt, I haven’t lived the life I should have lived. I have brothers and sisters. I have nieces and nephews. I have a wife, kids. In basketball, when you go to sleep, the last thing you do is you think about the team. And when you wake up in the morning, the first thing you do is think about the team. It’s consuming, and I’m tired of that. I want to travel, I want to spend time with my family, I want to play golf, I want to drink beer without any consequences.”
St. Bonaventure men’s basketball head coach Mark Schmidt (left) stands with (from left to right) Frank Mitchell, Cayden Charles and Darryl ‘Buddy’ Simmons II, who were all honored prior to the team’s final game of the regular season for surpassing the 1,000-point mark for their careers this season. (Derek Gumtow)
He thanked St. Bonaventure University for the years they have shared and noted that the decision did not come based on any one matter. Now, he is prepared to let go of the reins and make way for a new figure to take up the charge.
“The university has been terrific, the alumni, I couldn’t ask for a better 19 years,” Schmidt said. “I’m not leaving because of anything that has happened. It’s just time, 19 years is a long time. From a financial standpoint, I don’t need it. So, it’s time to give somebody else a voice. I’m appreciative of everything. I’m a lucky guy to be able to be the head coach at St. Bonaventure, such a storied program, for 19 years. It’s an honor.”
Ultimately, the individual accolades don’t carry much weight for Schmidt. Those aren’t what he sees as the most important part of what he’s done.
For him, it was always about the collective.
“I just want to be remembered as someone that did it the right way,” Schmidt said. “It wasn’t about me. It’s about us. It’s about the community. I didn’t win any game. I haven’t made a basket that counted since 1985. It’s the players, they did it. We did it together. It wasn’t I and me, it was we and us. It’s not about victories. It’s about people, relationships.”
Schmidt will coach St. Bonaventure through the postseason before stepping away. His team earned the No. 13 seed in the Atlantic 10 Championship and will face No. 12 seed La Salle at 11:30 a.m. on March 11 at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh. The game will be broadcast on USA Network.
