Gavin Schmitt started playing volleyball in Saskatoon for the Saskatchewan Huskies volleyball club and eventually went on to win the silver medal with the Canada men's national volleyball team at the 2013 NORCECA Volleyball Championship in Langley, Canada. From 2009 to 2012, Schmitt played for the Daejeon Samsung Bluefangs in South Korea's V-League, where he led the team to three consecutive titles winning the MVP awards in the 2009–10 and 2011–12 seasons. Schmitt led the national team in scoring in six of the seven matches he played for Canada at the 2014 World Championship in Poland, where Canada finished seventh for its best result ever in the championship that has been held 18 times since 1949. In July 2016, he was named to Canada's 2016 Olympic team.