Jeff Shaffer came to Auburn 11 years ago as one of the most respected coaches in the diving community. Now, 52, Shaffer has improved the Auburn diving program in Olympic-size proportions. In 10 years, Shaffer, who was named the SEC Men's Diving Coach of the Year in 2009, has made the Auburn diving program into a complete complement to the Auburn swimming program, no small task when you consider that the swimming and diving squad has amassed 12 national titles. Last season, Shaffer guided Kelly Marx and Dan Mazzaferro to a successful finish at the NCAA Championships. On the springboard events, Marx was runner-up on the three-meter and reached the finals on the one-meter, while Mazzarferro earned honorable mention All-America honors on the three-meter. Both divers earned honorable mention All-America accolades on the 10-meter platform. Mazzaferro was named the 2009 Co-SEC Male Diver of the Year after he repeated as SEC Champion on the platform. He also finished first on the three-meter springboard and third on the one-meter. Marx also had a successful conference meet, picking up second place in all three diving events. Under Shaffer's direction in the 2007-08 season, Auburn's Marx and Mazzaferro made the finals on all three boards at the NCAA Championships, accounting for 50 of Auburn's points at the meet while earning six All-America honors. His divers also won two of the three boards at the SEC Championships with Marx taking top honors on the 1-meter and Mazzaferro earning first on the platform. During the 2006-2007 season, Steven Segerlin captured his first NCAA springboard title on the 3-meter while picking up his second platform title in a row, extending the AU streak to five, and with this victories secured the Tigers seventh overall NCAA team crown. For his efforts, Segerlin was named NCAA Male Diver of the Year. Segerlin also swept the titles on all three boards at the SEC Championships, becoming just the third diver in SEC history to pull off the feat. Another impressive feat from the 2007 NCAA Championships was the 99 points contributed to Auburn's total of 566 by the divers. The mark breaks the previous high total of 93 points at the 2004 Championships. The three Tiger divers, Segerlin, Kelly Marx and Dan Mazzaferro, also accounted for seven All-America honors. Just one week prior to Segerlin's performance, Shaffer coached sophomore Corey Gerlach and senior Lynnsey Segraves to All-America honors. Gerlach finished 10th on the 3-meter and 15th on the 1-meter as Segraves was sixth on the 3-meter and ninth on the platform. The points earned by their finishes proved to be vital in the women's fifth NCAA team crown. In the last six years alone, Shaffer's charges have claimed seven SEC and five NCAA titles - and in 2004, it was a 1-2-3 Auburn sweep on the platform at the conference championships. The success of the 2003-04 season was evident as the Tigers set new records and received more honors in nearly every event during the course of the season, including the most diving points scored by a group of Auburn divers at a SEC or NCAA Championship. At the conclusion of the year, he was given USA Diving's Coach of Excellence Award after guiding the Tigers to the 2004 USA Diving Men's Team Championship. Shaffer's biggest accomplishment to this point may have been the signing of Caesar Garcia in his first recruiting class seven years ago. Garcia went from an All-American as a freshman, who had also finished dead-last at the 2000 USA Olympic Team Trials, to a two-time NCAA platform champion the SEC and NCAA Male Diver of the Year in 2004 and a XXVIII Olympian by the time his stay on the Plains had ended. This earned Shaffer a coaching spot on the 2004 USA Olympic Coaching roster. He also drastically helped Ashley Rubenstein, one of his other first-class signees, transform into a fourth-place finisher on the 1-meter as a senior, as well as a 2004 USA Olympic Team Trials finalist, a National Team Member and most recently the 2006 U.S. National title on 1-meter. In 2003, Shaffer guided the Auburn diving program's to its most successful season up to that point. Garcia became just the second NCAA champion that the Auburn diving program has ever had when he tied Jason Coban of Michigan for the platform title at the men's championships in Austin, Texas. Garcia also picked up the squad's second straight SEC platform title after teammate Matt Bricker captured it in 2002. On the women's side, Rubenstein earned a silver medal at the SEC Championships on the 1-meter, becoming the first AU woman to medal at the conference championship more than once since Marina Smith picked up three medals from 1989-93, while freshman Kelsey Patterson placed third on the platform. Shaffer's influence has also catapulted Bricker and Garcia to national and international prominence. The pair spent most of the 2003 summer season competing in international events, including the World Championship Team Trials (the pair placed second in the synchronized 3-meter competition), the Speedo-FINA USA Diving Grand Prix, the FINA Italian Grand Prix (Bricker won the platform), the Speedo National Championships (the pair won the synchronized platform) and the World University Games, to which Shaffer served as a coach for the USA team. The icing on the cake came when Auburn captured the men's team title at the USA Diving Championships. A three-time Pacific-10 Diving Coach of the Year while at Southern California, Shaffer helped guide USC's women's team to a national title in 1997 and was also named the United States Olympic Committee's National Diving Coach of the Year in both 1997 and 1998. In 15 years of coaching Division I, Shaffer has coached five national champions, three silver medalists and seven bronze medalists - most recently Segerlin, who won the platform and 3-meter titles in 2007 - as well as 17 individuals to 68 All-America honors. Bricker and Garcia each earned All-America honors during the 2002 meet as Garcia finished eighth on the 3-meter, which made the duo the first in school history to earn All-America honors in the same season, a feat they repeated in 2003 and 2004, bringing freshman Steven Segerlin along with them. In 2001, Shaffer coached Garcia to the team's first All-America honor since Koffi Kla in 1996. Garcia placed eighth on the platform at the NCAA Championships to become an All-American. Shaffer also guided Andrew Sivulka to the NCAA Championships in 2001, which had marked the first time two divers from Auburn had qualified for the men's NCAA Championships in the same year. On the women's side, Rubenstein captured a silver medal in the 1-meter event at the 2001 SEC Championships, which was the first medal for an Auburn woman diver since Marina Smith in 1993. Prior to USC, he coached at LSU for two years. At LSU, Shaffer coached four All-Americans, including a 1-2 finish in the 1994 NCAA platform competition (Susie Ryan and Kathy Carboy), and earned the SEC Women's Diving Coach of the Year honor. At the 1995 NCAAs, he guided his divers to four top-six finishes. His 20-year coaching career at the club level has proven even more successful. During that span, he has coached divers of all ages and ability levels and demonstrated the ability to develop divers to world renowned status. Shaffer's ability was recognized by the United States Olympic Committee in 1996 when they honored him as the inaugural recipient of the USOC National Developmental Coach of the Year for all Olympic Sports. Shaffer's divers include 10 World Junior Champions, 39 National Junior Champions, eight Senior National Champions, three Junior National Team titles and three Senior National Team titles. Shaffer has been honored twice by United States Diving as the Age Group Diving Coach of the Year and was also awarded the Coach of Excellence award in 1996 by United States Diving. Shaffer has served as a National Team coach for United States Diving in international competitions throughout the world including the 1994 and 1998 Goodwill Games, the 1997 FINA World Cup Championships and 1998 FINA World Aquatic Championships, the National Team coach in the summer of 2002 and the 2003 World University Games in Dague, Korea. At the 2004 Olympic Games, Shaffer was an assistant coach and most recently served as the co-head coach of the U.S. team at the 2005 World University Games in Izmir, Turkey, where he coached current AU junior Segerlin and former All-American Ashley Rubenstein, among others. Because of his involvement in the United States Diving program, Shaffer was honored with ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange in January of 2001. A 1980 graduate of Wisconsin, he earned a bachelor's degree in physical education. Shaffer and his wife, Jenny, have two daughters, Amy (20), a junior at Auburn this year, and Kelly (19) and a son, J.J. (Jeffrey Jr.) (14). Amy is a mid-distance runner on the Auburn track team while Kelly is a sophomore om the Samford University soccer team. |
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