Four for four

Kya Loffswold

Mental toughness is an important component in athletics.

Senior golfer, Matthew Schmit, was the first Xavier Saint to reach the golf state tournament all four years of high school. The Xavier boys’ golf team placed eighth at the tournament, which ties the best finish for a Xavier team at state. Personally, Schmit finished in 16th place.

“It was very special getting to go to state all four years of high school. Coach mentioned to me before the season that I would be the first Xavier golfer to ever do this so that motivated me throughout the season,” Schmit said. “I also had some great teammates over the last four years, they all contributed in getting me to state. All four years we had a different team, but each year was just as fun as the last.” 

Coach Tim O’Brien has coached Schmit each year and has seen him progress over the years.

“Matthew was able to mature to the point where he understood that not every time he played every aspect of his game would be perfect and could still post a really good score even when he wasn’t playing well in all facets of his game on a particular day,” O’Brien said. “As a person he was a super nice young man all four years but the confidence level and course management abilities were rock solid as a golfer by the end. He rarely had more than a bogie on his scorecard most of the season.”

Schmit’s father, Jason Schmit, is proud of Matthew’s accomplishments. !!!!!!!!

“Matthew’s golf game has changed in several ways over the last four years. Most significantly has been his increased length. It is truly a gift to be able to hit the ball as far as he does. His chipping and course management have also shown improvement. All of these factors have led to lower scores,” Jason said. “I have enjoyed observing Matthew in a leadership role the last two seasons, especially with a relatively young team that included his brother, Ryan. It has been tremendously rewarding to watch Matthew become the young man he is today.”

Golf is an inconsistent game, requiring a lot of focus and mental toughness. 

“He has a great demeanor on the course and never gets too high nor too low. He has an incredible ability of understanding when he’s in a critical situation, but doesn’t get too tight and allow it to overwhelm him,” Jason said. 

The team members bonded very well this year, which helped them be comfortable with each other on and off the course. 

“My favorite part about being on the golf team was all of our inside jokes and more specifically the van rides. My favorite memory from this year was the district meet, we played our best meet of the season and getting to celebrate with the team knowing we made it to state was really fun,” Matthew said. 

Coach O’Brien spoke highly of the team and their bond.

“This team consistently met our expectations for when and where they needed to be somewhere or if we challenged them to the very end on what we needed to improve on to successfully compete at the District and State level,” O’Brien said. “Plus we had great chemistry and some of that developed more as the season went on. I attribute it to our seniors, Matthew, Clayton and Sean, as they directed that in a positive way.” 

Senior, Clayton Nurre, enjoyed the season and golfing with Matthew. 

“The season was great and finishing it with state made it even better. Making it to state was the epitome of the season, and was what we worked for all summer,” Nurre said. “Matthew is a great teammate and playing with him the last four years has been fun, he always looks to have fun and make golf as enjoyable as possible.”

Matthew has learned a lot from his experience as a Xavier golfer.

“The best lesson I learned from the coaches has been to always stay mentally tough. Golf can be really tough when you have a stretch of a few bad holes, but over my four years they taught me that it’s always about the next shot and you can’t have a rearview mirror when playing golf,” Matthew said. 

The Xavier boys’ golf team was able to overcome a derecho, COVID-19 screening and revamping of their season to make it to where they ended up. The boys and coaches are all very thankful to have had a season and are grateful for the time they spent together. Matthew was able to leave his mark on the Xavier golf program by putting himself in the record books.