Olympian Gavin Schmitt discovered while flipping burgers, says former coach

It's been a long road to success for Saskatoon's "monster" of a player Gavin Schmitt. Before he became an Olympian scoring last-minute points and powering off hard serves for Team Canada, he spent his teenage years flipping burgers.

Like so many good stories in the Bridge City, Schmitt's story starts at Fuddruckers.

It was the summer of 2003 when provincial coach, Adam Ewart, saw Schmitt working at the local restaurant.

"I see a tall kid about 6-8", you know, glasses, pretty lanky. I go over and have a conversation with him, which is basically along the lines of, 'What do I have to do to get you to strap a uniform on your back and come out and give volleyball a shot,'" explained Ewart.

"I think he looked at me like I was absolutely insane."

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He said the conversation ended quickly after Schmitt turned down his offer.

"He'd only played basketball at that point and so his mom convinced him that he should give volleyball a shot in the high school season," Ewart said.

Schmitt spotted at high school tournament

During this time, Ewart was also an assistant coach with the University of Saskatchewan's Huskie men's program. While attending a high school volleyball tournament, he noticed Schmitt on the court.

"He was terrible but the thing about Gavin was, he moved exceptionally well. He was really good at movement laterally. He could stand at the net and basically reach over it and get his hands over the net just from standing and he could jump."

'At that tournament, Gavin was actually an all-star. He hadn't even played a full season of volleyball.'- Adam Ewart

Ewart said the main thing that stuck out about the high school student was his competitive nature.

"He wasn't really sure about what he was doing but he was jawing at guys through the net."

That's when the coach decided to try and convince the player to come out and play some club volleyball.

This time, Schmitt agreed.

"I told my assistant coach, you know if this tall kid shows up, we got to make sure we grab him and get him into practice," Ewart said. "He saw Gavin come into the gym and leave right away so he chased after him. All he saw was taillights and dust as he was driving away."

After hearing this, Ewart decided to contact Schmitt's mother. She told him that her son saw the team training and thought they were so good, and that there was no way he was going to play.

Change of heart

Ewart said after talking it over with Schmitt's mom, the young athlete attended a training session.

He played with Ewart's provincial team through that club season, and for the first time in 18 years, Saskatchewan won a national team challenge cup.

"At that tournament, Gavin was actually an all-star. He hadn't even played a full season of volleyball and already, because of his height right, his ability to jump, hard work ethic and athleticism, you know, he started to certainly raise some eyebrows," Ewart said.