Mark Schmidt: ‘When you run an event that’s close to people’s hearts, you get the support’

OLEAN — When St. Bonaventure men’s basketball coach Mark Schmidt got a call from former Bonnies coach Jim Satalin early in his career, he didn’t know it would set him on a path that would impact his community for years to come.

“Jim calls me up and goes, ‘You play golf?’ I said, ‘Yeah, yeah, I play golf,’” Schmidt recalled. “So next thing you know I get in my car, drive out on Sunday, and all the big coaches are there — Boeheim, Calhoun, Roy Williams. I was just kind of an afterthought.”

Satalin, then the national chairman of Coaches vs. Cancer, had asked Schmidt to step in for Michigan State’s Tom Izzo at a national event in Toledo, Ohio.

“But once I got involved, I saw the importance of it. Norm Stewart, the old Missouri coach, started it after his own cancer fight, and since then they’ve raised over $170 million (on a national level),” Schmidt said. “I thought, as one of the younger guys, it was my job to step in and carry it forward.”

Schmidt later teamed up with fellow Big Four coaches from Niagara, Canisius and Buffalo to try building a regional version of the golf event in Western New York.

“Our first year, we did it up in Buffalo at some public golf course,” Schmidt said. “We were driving back afterward and thought, ‘We can make a bigger impact.’”

That realization led to the move to Olean, where the event has grown into the Coaches vs. Cancer 716 Golf Classic, a two-day fundraiser at Bartlett Country Club that is sold out annually. In the last four years, the tournament has raised half a million dollars, all supporting local cancer patients and their families.

“This area isn’t the Hamptons,” Schmidt said. “Tickets aren’t cheap. But people have really come out and supported us. This community is really tight-knit. It’s all-in — you’re born here, raised here, die here.”

Funds raised stay close to home. They help with transportation for patients traveling to treatment centers in Buffalo or Rochester and support the Hope Lodge in Rochester, which provides free lodging for families while a loved one undergoes treatment.

“If you don’t have a car, how are you going to get to Roswell (Park Comprehensive Cancer Center) or Buffalo for a checkup?” Schmidt said. “People will say, ‘You have cancer? Go get treatment.’ But someone might not even have a ride. We help with that. And Hope Lodge — they don’t just take care of the patient, they take care of the family. That’s just as important.”

This year’s event, set for Sunday and Monday at the Bartlett, includes a reception dinner on Sunday night, the tournament on Monday and a cocktail dinner afterward. Organizers also organize an online auction, offering items like dinner with former ESPN insider and current general manager of SBU men’s basketball Adrian Wojnarowski, tickets to the Atlantic 10 tournament in Pittsburgh and memorabilia from the Buffalo Bills and Sabres as part of their fundraising effort.

For Schmidt, the growth of the event reinforces what he’s always believed about Olean and its people.

“Cancer affects everybody,” he said. “You may not have it, but you know somebody who does. That’s why it’s so important to raise money and give back. When you run an event that’s close to people’s hearts, you get the support.”