Crazy about coaching

Just like his father, Andy Schmitz has always known what he wanted to do for a living - coach football. As a student assistant at Florida State, he's well on his way.

By LINDA ROTHSTEIN

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 7, 2001

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Andy Schmitz is following in his father's footsteps and Scott Schmitz couldn't be more proud.

Andy Schmitz is a student assistant with the offensive line at Florida State.

Scott Schmitz is the football coach at Mitchell High and has been coaching for 24 years.He also teaches driver's education.

"I knew when I was a sophomore in high school what I wanted to do," the elder Schmitz said. "I had excellent high school coaches. My high school basketball coach had an enormous impact on my life and I knew that that's what I wanted to do. I knew it very young."

Andy also knew in high school that coaching was the career for him.

"I've known what I wanted to do forever," the FSU junior said. "When you're a little kid, you want to play sports for a living, and then as soon as I realized that probably wasn't going to happen, then I switched over to wanting to coach."

Playing football for his father at River Ridge strengthened his desire and led him to one of the top college football programs in the country.

"It was great playing for my dad," Andy said. "There were definitely the hard times when you have a bad practice and you come home and you still have to hear about the bad practice at dinner. So that was tough, but I wouldn't trade it. That was a great year. I think that kind of helped me decide more than anything that that's what I wanted to do."

Andy played three years at River Ridge and by the time he was a senior, he was the starting quarterback.

"It's different coaching your own son," Scott Schmitz said. "A lot of people think it's easy. I think it's one of the more difficult things that I've ever had to do because you've got some people saying he's playing because he's your son, and I think that a lot of times you probably end up being harder on him than you are on the other kids because you don't want that perception out there."

Coaching runs in the Schmitz family. Andy's grandfather was a high school basketball coach and his uncle is a football and basketball coach in Illinois.

"It's something he's grown up with," Scott Schmitz said. "It was easy in the respect that he knew the territory, he kind of knew what was going to happen."

As a student assistant, Andy does much of the grunt work for FSU offensive line coach Jimmy Heggins.

"I'm just kind of the do-a-little-bit-of-everything guy for the offensive line coach," Andy said. "I help set up practice and sometimes I help him break down film. I do a lot of office work and organizational things. I don't get to coach at all, obviously. It's more the behind-the-scenes getting the coaches prepared. I keep his recruiting log for him. It's more just helping the coach stay organized so he can only focus on coaching."

Andy's position is purely voluntary. The 8- to 10-hour days he spends working with the football team are in addition to his classes in social science education. Andy has several scholarships at FSU and they depend on him maintaining his grade-point average.

"The biggest change for me this semester has been time management," Andy said. "I had to spend so much time at the stadium and then come home and find study hours. It was difficult but I did all right."

Despite the long hours and frequent travel, Andy is compensated for his work solely with the chance to gain experience for a future career.

"I'm at the highest level of the No. 1 program year in and year out," Andy said. "You get to see what it's all about at the highest level."

He began working with the football team last year as a sophomore and with his junior year quickly coming to an end, Andy plans on staying with the team through his senior year.

After that, Andy wants to become a graduate assistant with the team.

"Coaching is not just showing up for practice and showing up for the games," Andy said. "It's hours and hours of time spent preparing and scouting. It's amazing how precise their preparation for everything is and how much time they put into it."

From there, Andy wants to become a high school football coach and teacher, just like his dad.

It was an exciting year for the 21-year-old, working with one of the most potent offenses in college football.

"It was an experience of a lifetime," Andy said. "When I first got to Florida State, I was star-struck for a little while. I'd walk around the office and think, 'Wow, that's Bobby Bowden. Wow, that's Coach Richt or Chris Weinke or whoever.' Then it finally just got to, 'Okay, these are the guys that I work with."'

The year came to a disappointing end with the Seminoles' 13-2 loss to Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl.

"It was extremely emotional in the fourth quarter," Andy said. "All through the first three quarters, it wasn't just any other game obviously, but there weren't any different emotions. Everybody was just focused on the game. Then when it started getting tight in the fourth quarter, it was very emotional. It became very somber."

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