Education
Shaffer graduated from the (University of California, Los Angeles) in 1986. He was an 11-time United States. National champion, the 1986 National Collegiate Athletic Association Diver of the Year and the National Collegiate Athletic Association one-meter and three-meter champion in 1986 for coach Ron Ballatore"s University of California, Los Angeles Bruins swimming and diving team Shaffer was a silver medalist in the three-meter at the 1987 Pan American Games and won a gold medal at the 1987 United States of America-Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics dual meet in the three-meter competition.
An Olympic Trials finalist in 1984 and 1988, he retired from competition in 1988 and moved into the coaching ranks.
Career
He is the current co-head coach of the Louisiana State University Tigers and Lady Tigers swimming and diving teams of Louisiana State University with responsibilities for the dive team Dave Geyer is head coach of the swimming team Shaffer has been the co-head coach of the Louisiana State University Tigers and Lady Tigers swimming and diving teams since 2010 when he was promoted from dive team coach (2002-2009) to co-head coach.
Under his tutelage, Shaffer has produced 13 National Collegiate Athletic Association All-Americans, two Southeastern Conference champions and an Securities and Exchange Commission Diver of the Year.
Prior to Louisiana State University, Shaffer was head coach at University of California, Los Angeles from 1988-1989 where he coached three Pac-10 champions and four All-Americans during his tenure at University of California, Los Los Angeles From 1989-1996, Shaffer was head coach at the University of Minnesota. Shaffer coached 11 Big Ten champions, 29 All-Americans and two National Collegiate Athletic Association champions while at Minnesota.
He has coached the United States in numerous international competitions since 1989, including the United States. National Diving teams in China, Sweden, Spain and the United States. Shaffer served as the assistant competition manager during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and was the head diving coach at the High Performance Center in Sheffield, England.
There, he coached five Olympians on the Lottery Funded World Class Performance Program.