Lolo Jones almost left Louisiana in July 2004.
The former Lady Tiger hurdler has trained in Baton Rouge since finishing her collegiate career at LSU. She thought about moving in 2004 after former coach Pat Henry left to coach Texas A&M.
But the 11-time All-American didn’t consider leaving because of Henry’s departure.
She almost left because she feared then-assistant coach Dennis Shaver would have to find another job.
“If [Coach Shaver] would’ve gone anywhere else, that’s where I would’ve gone,” Jones said. “I’m loyal to Coach Shaver.”
But Shaver was hired as head coach in July 2004, and he still coaches Jones, who will compete in the women’s 100-meter hurdles at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
The two have formed a close relationship in the eight years they have known each other. Shaver still coaches Jones when she trains at Bernie Moore Track Stadium.
Jones said she communicates with Shaver at least every day.
“If I don’t talk to him on the phone, I’ll text him or e-mail him,” Jones said. “I already know what he’s going to tell me. After a race if I look at him I can hear his words. That’s how long and how much he’s trained me and how much I know him.”
During Henry’s tenure, Shaver was an assistant coach in charge of all female athletes.
“A lot of people always kind of overlook that fact,” Jones said. “A lot of times people say ‘How is it now working with Coach Shaver instead of Coach Henry?’ and I say ‘What do you mean, Coach Shaver has always been my coach.'”
Shaver said he and Jones have maintained a good relationship because she is a “good communicator.”
“Without that, the coach-athlete relationship, you’re never going to be successful,” Shaver said. “That’s why she stays healthy all the time, because we can work together so well.”
Shaver admits the relationship has had its difficulties and that Jones has been impatient at times.
“It’s not all peachy,” Shaver said. “But the bottom line is that we both want to see improvement every year, and for eight years we’ve been able to accomplish that.”
Shaver said he wasn’t surprised when Jones won the women’s 100-meter hurdles at the U.S. Olympic Trials on July 6, saying Jones is “the best hurdler in the U.S. right now.”
“I wasn’t, I guess, overly joyed or anything,” Shaver said. “I really feel, and felt like, that her experience and maturation has put her in a position where she can handle that kind of pressure.”
Jones, on the other hand, said she was a bit more surprised after winning.
“I just couldn’t believe that had not only made the team but I won,” Jones said. “It was like a brief flashback to four years ago, when I didn’t even make the final at the [U.S. Olympic Trials].”
Shaver said Jones is among the favorites in the women’s 100-meter hurdles at the Olympic Games but also said there is no one clear favorite in the event.
“There’s several people obviously, seven or eight people, that could win the Olympic Games,” Shaver said. “She’s got her personal best now at 12.45 [seconds], and I think it’ll take a little faster time than that to win the Olympic Games.”
Shaver said Jones told him a long time ago one of her goals was to eventually compete for an Olympic gold medal.
“A lot of people say that,” Shaver said. “But in this particular case, she is as good as anybody maintaining a focus upon the very end product of what she’s trying to achieve.”
Jones said she first became interested in LSU during her senior year at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa. Kim Carson, another former Lady Tiger hurdler who attended the same high school as Jones, told Jones about her experiences in Baton Rouge.
“When she was back in town she was kind of telling me about LSU and just everything,” Jones said. “That’s when I really was excited to come to LSU or at least take a recruiting visit here.”
Jones said her first good impressions of Shaver came when he would call her on the phone.
“I was getting pretty much harassed from every school in the nation,” Jones said. “Coach Shaver would call, and literally he would talk to me for like five minutes, and that was it. At most schools … they would call and they would talk my head off. I would be holding the phone and be like ‘Please, let them want to get off the phone,’ but Coach Shaver just kept it real short and sweet.”
Shaver said he first heard about Jones during her junior year of high school.
“It was when she made her official visit here and just her burning desire, I could tell, to be very competitive at any level was important,” Shaver said. “Her whole thing was ‘How can LSU help her? How can you, Dennis Shaver, as my coach, help me accomplish these things?”
Jones said she is doing “simple, light” workouts while in Baton Rouge, making sure she doesn’t “overtrain” for the Olympics, which begin Aug. 8.
“Right now I’m as physically fit as I’m going to get,” Jones said. “It’s really more so about keeping maintenance and keeping your body healthy.”
Jones travels to California on Friday for U.S. team registration and heads to Beijing on Sunday. Shaver will join Jones in Beijing on Monday morning.
But while the Olympics begin next week, another special day is coming up for Jones.
Her birthday is Aug. 5, when she will be preparing in Beijing.
And what does she want for her birthday?
“A piece of cake and a gold medal is what I’d like for my birthday,” Jones said.
—-Contact Robert Stewart at [email protected]