'Coaching is in his DNA:' UNF's Scott Schroeder has a knack for spotting talent, winning
One of Jimmy Buffett's songs is titled "Good guys win."
One could call that the ballad of Scott Schroeder.
Quietly and modestly, by recruiting dozens of other "good guys" who play hard on the golf course and achieve in the classroom, Schroeder has built the most successful athletic program in University of North Florida history, serving as the longest-tenured active coach (18 years) and producing the school's most ASUN championships (seven) and NCAA tournament berths (14, with the last 13 coming in succession save for the incomplete 2020 pandemic season).
Schroeder has been voted ASUN Coach of the Year seven times, the most of any coach among the current conference membership and tied with Dave Mannen of Houston Baptist for the most in league history.
"Coaching is in his DNA," said John Brooks, UNF's first golf coach who recruited Schroeder from Largo High School in 1994, where he played golf for his father, Bill Schroeder, a career teacher and coach in Pinellas County. "He's always trying to figure out statistics and strategies, ways for players to get better. He's an incredible judge of talent in recruiting and he's always going against other schools with bigger names and more resources. He's done an unbelievable job."
"Nobody who knows college golf in the Southeast will argue that Scott works as hard or harder than anyone," said former University of Florida coach Buddy Alexander. "I know how hard it is to win at the mid-major level [Alexander played and coached at Georgia Southern]. He's got a tougher path than I did. But his competitive nature and work ethic are the reasons he's been successful."
North Carolina golf coach Andrew DiBitetto didn't hold back either.
"I truly think he is one of the best coaches in the country," DiBitetto said. "What he does every single year is absolutely incredible. On a consistent basis they are one of the best mid-majors if not the best."
Scott Schroeder relies on homegrown talent
Schroeder, sitting behind an uncluttered desk in his cramped office at the Hayt Golf Center, responds with typical humility, crediting UNF’s academic reputation and family atmosphere, the First Coast's golf facilities and the quality of Florida junior golf that gives him a solid recruiting base.
"A lot of times you do the best job of guessing that you can," he said about pinpointing talent. "If there are five or six good junior players in this area at about the same time and I can get one of them, we have a chance to be pretty good. And the state has so much talent ... if you look at our rosters, 95 percent of our players have come from Florida.”
Steve Carter, a UNF booster and member of the Ospreys NAIA national championship team in 1993, almost scoffs at the idea that Schroeder “guesses.”
“He’s done a really good job of finding kids who have potential and are improving,” he said. “It’s hard to predict what someone 15 or 16 years old will be at 19 or 20 but identifies the kind of talent that later he can cultivate.”
Once players arrive at UNF, Schroeder formulates a unique practice and training plan for each one, keeping in mind that they all have private swing coaches.
“One of his greatest strengths is holding guys to the same standards but at the same time tailoring a plan for each individual to get better,” Brooks said.
There’s something else in the equation. Golfers want to win. Schroeder is a winner and for his perceived laid-back demeanor, he’s got an inner fire that those closest to him feel.
"He hates to lose," said current senior Robbie Higgins. "He's a great coach and a great guy but there's a competitiveness about him. He's kind of a silent assassin."
Scott Schroeder has been in UNF program for 30 years
There may not be a figure in UNF athletics history who bleeds the Osprey colors like Schroeder.
This season marks 30 years since he arrived on campus as a student-athlete. After a two-year period following his graduation in 1998 when he taught and coached in the Duval County school system, Schroeder became an assistant under Brooks, then served as the first director of golf for the Hayt Center and became the head coach just before the spring semester of 2006.
The Ospreys, 30th in the nation on the latest Spikemark rankings and ahead of traditional golf powers such as Stanford, Pepperdine, Clemson and Houston, are favored to win their eighth ASUN title beginning on Sunday at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail Highland Oaks Course in Dothan, Ala.
Given their national ranking, the Ospreys are almost a sure bet to make the 15th NCAA tournament under Schroeder as an at-large team.
UNF is led by seniors Nick Gabrelcik (third on the PGA Tour University rankings and ninth in the nation by Spikemark) of Trinity and Higgins (36th on PGA Tour U, 81st in the nation) of Bradenton, plus area products Andrew Riley (Creekside), Jason Duff (Menendez) and Davis Lee (Ponte Vedra).
It's that kind of mix of statewide and First Coast prospects that has been a winning formula for Schroeder, who guides the team with steady but forceful leadership and makes it clear that there are standards by which everyone will abide: play golf with respect for the game and opponents and perform in the classroom.
Schroeder's player development ledger is remarkable for a mid-major university: six Ping All-Americans, 16 Ping All-Southeast players, 38 All-ASUN players, seven ASUN players of the year, eight conference freshmen of the year and 64 ASUN All-Academic players. He has coached two players who earned PGA Tour cards, Vince Covello and Philip Knowles and another, Kevin Phelan, who earned DP World Tour status.
On the amateur side, Schroeder has coached seven players who have won the Jacksonville Area Golf Association Championship, and players such as Gabrelcik and Andrew Alligood have gone deep in national USGA events. Gabrelcik and Phelan have played in the Walker Cup, Sean Dale and Jeff Dennis have won the Florida Amateur and Higgins and Philip Knowles have won the Florida Match Play.
UNF has won 26 tournaments and finished among the top five in full-field events in nearly 60 percent of the team's starts under Schroeder.
“You go around the country and you’ll have a hard time finding schools that have done what we’ve done under Scott with that kind of consistency,” said UNF athletics director Nick Morrow. “A lot of it comes down to the fact that he’s a relationships guy, with the players, other coaches, boosters, the community, the people who run golf courses that let our team play and practice there ... his ability to recruit and win at this level is pretty special.”
Schroeder searches for ‘diamonds in the rough’
Dennis, who played and later served on Schroeder's staff, said Schroeder has a keen understanding for what works, and wins at the mid-major level, while still winning tournaments with teams such as Florida, FSU, Texas, Oklahoma State, Alabama, LSU and Tennessee in the field.
"He knows exactly what UNF's bread and butter is," said Dennis, who is now in player relations of the PGA Tour. "The players he recruits, the schedule he builds. He doesn't get into too many battles with teams like Florida over the same recruits but he does a good job of keeping the local talent here and spotting talent outside the area, seeing things in kids no one else does."
Knowles is a good example. A native of Bradenton, Knowles grew up a huge Gator fan but noticed something: Schroeder, Dennis, or sometimes both were almost always at his junior tournaments.
"They watched me 10 times more than anyone else," said Knowles, who in 2022 became the second UNF player to earn a PGA Tour card. "There was never a doubt that they valued me and wanted me to be a part of the program."
Gabrelcik, who is on target to earn full Korn Ferry Tour status following the NCAA tournament in May through the PGA Tour University rankings (he's third), said Schroeder's eye for talent is uncanny.
"He finds diamond-in-the-rough players that other coaches look straight over," said the Trinity native. "He finds a way to recruit Florida well enough to keep making [NCAA] regionals every year, even though this program is not talked about as much as others. I think that shows what kind of coach and recruiter he is."
Ospreys have high expectations off the course
It’s been more than birdies and trophies. UNF's golf program has recorded a team grade point average of 3.0 or higher in 19 of its last 20 semesters (averaging 3.194), has a perfect record over the past four years in maintaining athletic eligibility (84 of 84 student-athletes) and has a graduation rate of 81.6 percent during Schroeder's tenure as the head coach, nearly 20 percentage points higher than the ASUN's overall figure for student-athletes.
Schroeder said his longstanding policy is that his players know what's required of them as athletes and students, and the rest is up to them. If they falter in either regard because of a lack of effort, there is always someone ready to step in.
"They have a responsibility to pass their classes and make solid grades," he said. "It's their job to know what they need to do. You should have a 3.0 [GPA] or better. That's not asking a whole lot. You're trying to teach them life skills and how to manage situations and understand how to get what they want."
Morrow said he's more than happy with the blend of championships and honor rolls among the UNF golfers.
"He'll coach them hard, be strict, but he'll turn it over to them and say, 'you guys know what's required to succeed," Morrow said.
Kaitlyn Schroeder, a sophomore at Alabama, said she noticed as she got older that there wasn't much of a difference between the standards her father had for her and his players — and for how much he helped them reach those standards.
"He's very caring, very supportive and very positive on a daily basis," she said. "He holds his players and he holds me to the same high expectations, but he will always do what is needed to help you be your best."
John Hayt, a long-time UNF athletic benefactor, especially for the golf program, said Schroeder commands respect without being domineering or bigger than the program.
"He's even-mannered, even-tempered ... I don't know if I've ever heard him raise his voice," Hayt said. "Scott does not have an ego. He's extremely fair with his kids and he's also tremendous at building relationships, with boosters, other coaches and the community. He's well-liked by everyone who comes into contact with him."
From a 67 on one hole to two district titles
Bill Schroeder needed to talk to his son one day about a family matter and being both his golf coach and driver's education teacher at Largo High School, he knew Scott's class schedule.
After intercepting him during a change of classes, Bill Schroeder found out he would have to wait.
"Scott told me he didn't have time ... he had to get to class and didn't want to be late," Bill Schroeder said. "I thought that was a pretty good omen. He was very committed to everything he did, golf or classes."
Like most golfers, Scott Schroeder began to play because his father did. After swinging plastic clubs when he was barely able to walk, then hitting some cut-down clubs at a local range, 2-year-old Scott was taken by his father to a par-5 hole, told him to tee it up and hit until he got the ball in the hole.
"We counted them all," Bill Schroeder said. "He took 67 shots."
It wasn't long before Scott Schroeder could negotiate 18 holes in about that many shots.
Chris Slattery first met Schroeder when he was nearly 10 years old and thought he had a junior tournament at the Belle Aire Country Club safely in hand. Then he was informed in the pro shop to get his clubs and head for the first tee — Schroeder, 8, had tied Slattery.
Slattery won the playoff but it began a lifelong friendship in which they were teammates twice.
"We were rivals but friends," said Slattery, who is now the director of golf at the Avila Golf and Country Club. "Our parents became friends. We traveled together to junior tournaments and then played together at Largo. I was two years older but Scott was an awesome player. He was as good as anyone when he was on."
Schroeder, a left-handed player (he does everything else right-handed) was a two-time district champion, hit the ball a long way off the tee and as Slattery said, "could get it up-and-down from anywhere."
Slattery signed to play for UNF, which had already won an NAIA national championship under Brooks in 1991. He made sure to tell Brooks of his long-hitting buddy with the deft short game.
Brooks watched Schroeder play in a junior tournament and liked what he saw.
"He played aggressively and was always trying to make a birdie, attacking the golf course," Brooks said. "He knew how to play the game, always had a very high golf IQ."
Schroeder had nibbles from USF and Florida Southern but fell in love with the First Coast for its variety of golf courses and its proximity to the beach.
"To me, it was a lot of living in the Tampa area," he said. "To be honest, there are a lot more quality golf courses than in the Tampa area and with the relationships John Brooks built, we had a chance to play at places like the TPC Sawgrass, Deerwood, Queen's Harbour. I like that the climate was a little bit cooler but for a kid who loved to play golf, having so many places to play was the biggest plus."
Driving yips dictated Schroeder's destiny
If it wasn't for Ren and Stimpy, Scott Schroeder and Wendy Bruno might not have met.
When Schroeder was a sophomore at UNF, he and teammate Danny Simmerman moved into an off-campus apartment complex that was populated largely by other students. It was an idyllic time, filled with golf, classes, watching sports on TV, trying to beat each other in everything from video games to tennis, and befriending fellow students who would get together and share several meals a week, everyone kicking in for Sams runs and splitting the cooking chores.
Schroeder and Simmerman met at the 1993 Florida State Amateur at the Sawgrass Country Club the summer before they enrolled at UNF and vowed to be roommates.
"We knew it would be a good fit," said Simmerman, who has an insurance business in San Antonio. "We had a lot of fun for four years. We both loved sports, loved golf ... Scott was one of those guys, super easy to get along with."
Schroeder and Simmerman were both taking business management courses. Many other friends at the apartment complex were also in similar fields of study, including Bruno, an Ed White graduate and member of the UNF tennis team.
She met Schroeder for the first time when one of her roommates burst in and implored her to come and visit the unit where Schroeder and Simmerman lived to see two kittens — named Ren and Stimpy — which the two roomies had adopted.
"She got her sister and me to come over and see the kittens and that's how we all started talking, getting to know each other," said Wendy Schroeder, the senior director of business systems at CSX. "My first impression was that Scott was friendly, outgoing, very personable. It’s what people say about him to this day when they first meet him."
The only hitch to Schroeder's college years: his performances began to suffer from what he called a two-way miss with the driver. Schroeder tried his best in team qualifiers. Brooks said no one practiced harder.
But Schroeder realized during his junior year that the PGA Tour wouldn't be in his future if he couldn't get a starting spot on his college team.
"I had played good golf but I knew what the kind of game you need on the Tour looked like,” he said. “I knew guys like Josh McCumber and Pat Perez, and the guys on our team and I found out I didn't really have the ability to block out the noise. When you're standing on the 17th tee of the Stadium Course under pressure, you've got to block out the noise and I wasn't doing that. I wasn't interested in chasing it for three or four years after graduation."
Schroeder's transition from player to coach
While Schroeder had doubts about his game, he had a business degree in hand and knew he had a future with Wendy (they will celebrate their 25th anniversary in June). He landed a job as a math teacher at Southside Middle and coached soccer, then golf at Mandarin High School.
In that sense, Schroeder was staying in the family business. In addition to his father, his mother Joyce (who passed away when he was in high school) taught at Largo High School and his sister Tracy is an elementary school teacher in Dunedin.
But Brooks had another idea. Knowing Schroeder's demeanor and his analytic approach to golf, he hired him as an assistant coach.
Brooks left 16 months later to start his consulting firm, Red Numbers Golf, which helps families navigate the road from junior golf to college. Schroeder expressed interest in the head coaching job but didn’t get an interview and UNF hired former Arkansas coach John Sadie, who had coached John Daly.
Sadie lasted only two years and left after the fall semester of 2005.
Former athletic director Richard Gropper then made the obvious move to stay within the Ospreys family and hired Schroeder on an interim basis. After the team posted two top-five finishes in Schroeder’s first spring, Brooks and Hayt urged Gropper to take the interim tag off.
It has obviously paid off.
UNF won its first ASUN title two years later. In another four years they won a second conference title, finished third in an NCAA regional, then tied for 12th in the first of five NCAA National Championships the Ospreys have reached under Schroeder.
He and his players add to the list of accolades and milestones every year.
Schroeder plans to remain at UNF
At 48, married to another UNF graduate and having spent nearly two-thirds of his life at the school in various capacities from student-athlete to coach, Schroeder seems in Jacksonville to stay.
“I've talked a couple of times to people to go elsewhere but I haven't had anything from a head coaching position that made a whole lot of sense,” he said.
“UNF is a very special place for both of us,” said Wendy Schroeder. “Jacksonville is a great place to live. Maybe Scott could have gone somewhere else for more money but is the money that important when you’re happy where you are?”
Scott Schroeder answers that question every year when he stamps out another championship season.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Scott Schroeder has produced ASUN titles, NCAA berths as UNF golf coach
