Every couple months, LSU swimming coach Dave Geyer goes speed dating.
He’s not in the market for a new bride — he’s seeking recruits.
With a 56-member team representing 18 states and six countries, Geyer and diving coach Doug Shaffer are forced to abandon traditional recruiting methods seen in other sports to land the top swimmers in the world.
Geyer likened senior and junior national meets and the Olympic Trials to speed dating, with hordes of college coaches waiting for a two minute conversation with prospective student-athletes.
“It’s kind of meat market-ish, a hallway filled with coaches outside the pool and athletes coming up and talking,” Geyer said. “It’s not pleasant, but you have to do it.”
While Geyer said the national meets allow him and his staff to see around 30 targeted athletes in action in one weekend, the passing words exchanged don’t divulge enough about an athlete’s persona.
Because he sometimes only sees a recruit face-to-face on an official visit, Geyer said he relies on swimming club coaches throughout the country to give him honest feedback on their pupils.
“Club coaches are usually very honest when it comes to an individual’s character,” Geyer said. “They don’t want to sell or provide something that might not be true because then they’ll lose the respect of college coaches and the recruiting of further student-athletes from their program.”
Already a cutthroat job, recruiting is compounded for Shaffer due to the absence of high school diving in Louisiana.
Shaffer said Louisiana has two active club programs in New Orleans and Baton Rouge that teach diving, but it is more recreational in nature.
Devoid of local high school prospects, Shaffer is forced to reach out to his friends and colleagues throughout the nation regarding his incoming recruiting classes.
“The diving population isn’t quite as big as swimming,” Shaffer said. “There are fewer coaches and there are fewer athletes, so we have a more ready relationship in the sport of diving.”
Boasting 12 international athletes between the pool and the boards, the team utilizes Skype to land athletes from across the pond and beyond.
“We can get that face-to-face contact from thousands and thousands of miles away to help build that relationship and get a better feel of someone and what they’re like,” Geyer said.
With only six athletes from Louisiana on the current team—four men and two women—Geyer and Shaffer agreed it’s challenging to recruit in-state when the area is traditionally dormant.
Geyer, who sits on the Louisiana Swimming Association’s board, said he’s confident swimming can get better and puts all his efforts to showcase the other side of an LSU experience.
“I do my best to try to pull them in,” Geyer said. “I have to bring them in here and show them that being here as a student-athlete is a lot different than being here as a general student.”
As for Shaffer, he wasn’t as optimistic.
“Let’s just say Louisiana isn’t a hotbed or a gold mine in producing talent,” Shaffer said.