While much attention has been focused on Les Miles, a new coach just across the street also will have large shoes to fill. Just don’t expect much change.
Already five months into his new job, track and field coach Dennis Shaver said he is not looking to flip the program upside down.
“I don’t think our athletes feel significant change in the day to day operations,” Shaver said. “It’s the same exact expectations. We just want our athletes to represent us well, to be the best they can be, and for them to be coachable.”
Shaver, hired last July following former head coach Pat Henry’s departure to Texas A&M, was promoted from women’s sprint/recruiting coordinator to head coach.
Stepping in to replace Henry, who won 25 national championships in his time at the University, Shaver is primarily focused on maintaining strong expectations at LSU.
“We’re a team sport, but we’re an individual sport at the same time,” Shaver said. “From a philosophy side, we have to do everything we can to help each individual improve just a little bit better day to day, week to week, month to month and year to year.”
Entering his 10th season at LSU, Shaver began his coaching career at Hutchinson Community College in Hutchinson, Kan. There he served as a head coach in track and field and as an assistant football coach.
Following his time at Hutchinson, Shaver then took a head coaching position in track and field at Barton County Community College in Great Bend, Kan., in 1986.
“At Hutchinson, I had inherited the track program as well as continuing to coach football,” Shaver said. “And the opportunity to coach at Barton came, and it seemed like the right thing to do.”
Following a short stint as an assistant at Auburn University, Shaver was then hired in 1995 to assist Henry at LSU.
Over the past nine years Shaver has directed 10 individual NCAA champions and seven national champion relay teams. Shaver also coached 144 athletes to All-America honors.
Yet while Shaver has contributed to LSU’s past success, he said stepping in as head coach is not much of a change.
“I’d like to think I’ve contributed to [LSU’s] success over the last nine years,” Shaver said. “But nothing’s really changed.”
In terms of financial support concerning the track and field program, Athletic Director Skip Bertman said it all will remain the same.
“In order to have the philosophy we have, to get as many people to the national championship, you have to be able to afford it,” Bertman said. “We’ve always done that and we will continue to do it for Shaver.”
As a former coach who also raised expectations in the LSU baseball program, Bertman said he is confident Shaver will maintain LSU’s strong success in track and field.
“As a coach, you always want to win with the most available resources,” Bertman said. “The past success means that the expectations are so very high, even unrealistic. However, this coach will strive to be just as successful.”
Bertman earned five national titles in ten years during his time at LSU.
While expectations at LSU will remain high, one thing Shaver looked to change concerned community involvement among the student athletes.
“It’s something we encouraged them to do after having asked them if it’s something they’d like to do,” Shaver said. “And they just took the ball and ran with it.”
Members of the track and field team visited Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in November.
“We have just a great overall group of college athletes,” Shaver said. “It’s difficult for us to personalize things with the community unless the athletes are personalizing it for them.”
And while expectations will remain high, Shaver is confident in maintaining a strong track and field program.
“The little thing our athletes do or don’t do are the difference makers,” Shaver said. “We just try to take as much of the ‘chance’ away and make things a lot more predictable.”