Austin Shaver transitioned into athletics administration in the spring of 2022 following three seasons on the men's basketball staff at Longwood. In his current role, he serves as an operational day-to-day lead point of contact for external relations in the department while also overseeing the program's branding and sponsor partnerships.
He came to Longwood as an assistant coach in May of 2019 and was elevated to director of program development and special projects in June of 2021.
A former assistant coach at William & Mary under Tony Shaver and graduate assistant at VCU under Anthony Grant, Shaver amassed a 190-179 (.515) record in 12 seasons before becoming a Lancer, including 163 of those wins on Division I staffs. He has been a part of four 20-win teams, including the 2007-08 Colonial Athletic Association regular-season champion VCU team that went 24-8, and three consecutive 20-win squads at William & Mary from 2014-16.
Shaver added to that coaching resume in his two years with the Lancers, contributing to a breakthrough stretch in which the Lancers have gone a combined 19-19 in the Big South and earned back-to-back top-five finishes in the league. Shaver has contributed to all facets of the program since arriving and played a key role in not only helping the Lancers their best two-year run of the Division I era but also to four consecutive semesters with team GPAs over 3.00.
A 2007 graduate of the University of Virginia and a 2009 graduate from VCU's Center for Sports Leadership master's program, Shaver came to Longwood after a successful nine-year stint under his father at perennial CAA contender William & Mary. After beginning his time with the Tribe as director of operations in 2010-11 and 2011-12, he was elevated to assistant coach in 2012-13 and helped the program to one of its most successful stretches in history. The Tribe went 123-96 (.562) in his seven years as assistant coach, posted winning records five times, and put together top-four finishes in the CAA in each of his last six seasons.
Shaver's hiring at Longwood marked his coaching return to his hometown of Farmville where from 2008-10 served as an assistant coach at Hampden-Sydney, the alma mater of Aldrich and the program his father built into a national Division III powerhouse from 1986-2003.
Of Shaver's 14 seasons as a coach at the collegiate level, his teams have finished .500 or better eight times, including in 2014-15 when helped lead William & Mary to a share of the CAA regular-season championship. He has made two trips to the National Invitational Tournament, doing so with VCU in 2007-08 and William & Mary in 2014-15.
The son of a renowned head coach with more than four decades of experience in Tony Shaver, Austin began his coaching career during his days as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia. His first position was as an assistant coach at The Miller School of Albemarle, located in Charlottesville, Va., during the 2006-07 season. He then became a head coach for the first time with the East Coast Fusion AAU program, holding that post for the 2007 season before graduating from Virginia and moving into his role as a graduate assistant at VCU.
Throughout his coaching career, Shaver has gained experience in every facet of the profession. At William & Mary, he mentored the Tribe's post players, scouted opponents, led film sessions and practices, recruited around the nation and handled many logistical elements of the program, including budget planning, equipment, promotions, camps and team travel.
William & Mary's post players excelled under Shaver, with those big men earning a combined seven All-ACC awards during his tenure. Center Nathan Knight was also selected as one of five finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award this past year, putting him alongside fellow finalists from Georgetown, Maryland, Western Kentucky and Wisconsin. That top-five finish in the award voting was the culmination of a drastic developmental arc in which Shaver helped transform the 6-10, 245-pound Knight from an 8.2-points per game scorer as a freshman in 2016-17 into a 21.0-point scorer who also averaged 8.6 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game as a junior in 2018-19.
Austin and his wife, Kelly, were married in June of 2010 and reside in Farmville. The couple has two children, Braden and Caroline.
