An assistant coach who has led player development with the Toronto Raptors NBA G League affiliate Raptors 905 the past three years, Schmidt picked up the first win of his professional head coaching career Monday when the Honey Badgers defeated Guelph, 97-71. Hamilton is 1-2 midway through the six-game round robin portion of the CEBL Summer Series, a single site competition in St. Catharines, Ont. featuring all seven league teams playing a total of 26 games in 15 days.

“In his time with us Ryan Schmidt has established a culture of competitive excellence that develops players on and off the court. It’s easy to see why he is well-regarded at the NBA level, and why players who are elite or who seek to become their best choose to work with Ryan,” said team president John Lashway. “This summer has been atypical in many ways for the CEBL and for professional basketball in general. We’re eager to see Ryan have the opportunity to instill his program in a more normal environment over the course of the next year.”

Schmidt’s work with Raptors 905 the past three seasons has resulted in multiple players being promoted to the Raptors, two players named to the All-NBA G League Team (Chris Boucher and Jordan Lloyd), and a G League Most Valuable Player (Boucher) and Defensive Player of the Year (Boucher). He has been responsible for advance game scouting and planning, and throughout his time with the team he has been accountable for offense, defense, and special teams that has included leading practice, game planning, and strategic execution.

Since May of 2017 Schmidt has worked with Canada Basketball to organize and lead workouts with members of the Junior and Senior Men’s National teams at the National Training Center. A native of Keizer, Oregon, Schmidt worked with high school and college athletes in a year-round player development program, coached the 17U team on the Nike EYBL circuit for Portland Basketball Club, assisted the World Team during the Nike Hoop Summit, and assisted with summer league practices with the Portland Trail Blazers. He was head coach with 22FT Academy in Greenville, South Carolina for four seasons, with his teams posting a 106-35 record and seeing 18 players receive NCAA Division 1 scholarships during that four-year period.

Following a playing career at Hawaii and then with Western Oregon University where he served as team captain for two seasons and led the Wolves in scoring as a senior, Schmidt was a 2008 draft selection by Idaho of the NBA Developmental League. He played for Honolulu in the American Basketball Association during the 2009-10 season. Schmidt trained for three consecutive summers in Las Vegas with Joe Abunassar at Impact Basketball.

Hamilton continues CEBL Summer Series play Saturday against Fraser Valley in a 1:30 p.m. game that will be televised across Canada by CBC and around the world by Twitch, cbcsports.ca, and on the CBC Gem app. The Honey Badgers get their first look at the league’s expansion team, the Ottawa BlackJacks, Sunday at 1:30 p.m. in a game that will be carried on Twitch, cbcsports.ca and on CBC Gem.

Maria Suriani

Manager, Operations and Community Engagement

msuriani@honeybadgers.ca