After high school, he joined the Marines and served in Vietnam, playing basketball in the jungle and improvising a court.
[1] From 1980 to 1983, Schermerhorn served as assistant coach at UC Irvine under Bill Mulligan, where he helped develop the talents of Kevin Magee.
In 1983, he became head coach at Southern Utah, serving until he accepted an assistant position at Arizona State in 1987.
[3] He took over as the school's athletic director and was inducted into the California Community College Men's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003.
[4] He coached for three seasons at Holy Cross College (Indiana) and led the team to 32 wins and their first Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference post-season tournament victory in 2012 before retiring the following year.