Loyola Men’s Volleyball Manager Wins Gold with Team USA

Thomas Shaffer, Men’s volleyball’s student manager and a recent performance analyst for Team USA, won a gold medal with the U21 U.S. National Team after an undefeated run at the 2025 North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation U21 Men’s Pan American Cup in Calgary, Alberta Aug. 5 through 10. 

This was Shaffer’s first appearance on a U.S. National Team. 

Shaffer said his time working for the U.S. U21 team, along with former Loyola Men’s volleyball head coach John Hawks, was an enriching experience which showed him his potential in the sport. 

“It’s very validating to know that even if you don’t know how to do something at first, figuring it out either with help or just by yourself and producing a good product kind of shows you the limits of your potential,” Shaffer said.  

Although he helped secure this major win, Shaffer said he’s only been involved in the sport for about four years. His introduction to the game was in high school, where he played volleyball his junior and senior years at Lindbergh High School in St. Louis, Mo.

Before beginning his first year at Loyola, he reached out to then Men’s volleyball assistant coach, Ali’i Keohohou, who invited him to join the team as a manager. For the past two years, Shaffer has expanded his responsibilities, taking over the team’s film and eventually their stats coding.  

Volleyball coding consists of documenting play-by-plays and performance statistics as a form of data for coaches and players to analyze. These statistics can then be used to influence further decisions or plays during a match or practice.  

Shaffer credited his journey to the National Team to current Loyola Men’s volleyball head coach Shane Davis, who was in talks with the team’s coordinator and who eventually asked Shaffer to join the team for two weeks in Canada. 

Shaffer said due to his limited experience, he wasn’t expecting to join the U21 team. He thought the team would want the most skilled people available.

When he got the invite to the tournament, Shaffer attributed the success to his connection with Hawks, several helpful references and his scare skill. 

Aidan Klein, a Loyola Men’s volleyball player and Shaffer’s roommate, had also joined the 2024 U21 team for training at the Olympic and Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. 

Klein, who was on the 2024 U.S. U21 team last year, took gold at the NORCECA Continental Championship in Nogales, Mexico, the Phoenix previously reported. 

Despite the familiar face, Shaffer didn’t know what to expect during training. The only training Shaffer had been a part of was in October 2024, when he attended a U.S. training session for potential youth national players and learned more about coding and film from other attendees.

Unlike training last October, Shaffer said this time around he was on his own to handle all the tasks of a performance analyst. His responsibilities included coding every practice, running film sessions and gathering film on the U21 team and their competitors.

Shaffer recalled being overwhelmed and unsure how to do some tasks at times. 

“It was a lot,” Shaffer said. “And to be honest, a lot of the stuff I didn’t know how to do. I would say I was pretty technically advanced, but still, some of the stuff they wanted me to do I had never done before.” 

Shaffer said among these new tasks were general coaching responsibilities, such as analyzing player performance, recognizing player tendencies, developing scouting reports and learning to effectively communicate results to the coaches and players. 

Finding the balance between communicating not just in the way he saw best but also in the way the coaches preferred was a challenging yet rewarding effort for Shaffer. 

At the training center, Shaffer and the team were stuck on the training center’s campus during training. Luckily, Shaffer said the center’s food was some of the best he had ever had, making the time spent on campus worth it. 

Shaffer and the team also shared gyms with paralympic weightlifters and the U21 Women’s volleyball team, an experience he said he’ll never forget. 

“You get to see a lot of things you don’t normally get to see in a lot of people who are really dedicated to their sport,” Shaffer said. “It’s just something special you don’t see in an everyday athletic facility, so definitely something that you don’t take for granted.” 

Coach Hawks, whom Shaffer previously managed for during his first season with Loyola Men’s volleyball, led the team during training and the tournament. 

According to Shaffer, when Hawks first left Loyola, he worried things might get awkward, to which Hawks shot down and saw no need for that to happen.

Shaffer said both he and Hawks were happy to see each other again, and Shaffer was glad to show Hawks what he had learned since Hawks left Loyola. 

During the tournament, the U.S. swept Chile, Barbados, Mexico and Puerto Rico to make it to the title match. The only team who stood a chance was the home team, Canada, who the U.S. beat 3-1 in their third match of the tournament. 

The gold medal match was the second face-off between the U.S. and Canada, with the U.S. winning the match 3-1. Shaffer described the arena as one of the most confident rooms he’s been in. 

“You can tell the guys and the coaches were just proud that we ended up winning because we knew we could — we knew we should,” Shaffer said. “So just to see all of our hard work pay off, it was definitely extremely validating.” 

He said there’s a lot he will take from this experience and apply to Loyola’s team as they prepare for their spring season. 

Part of what he learned came from reflecting on how to present his data and film to the team in ways that’ll stick with the players, particularly in how he captures and displays the film for the team. 

Shaffer said he wants to prepare more film sessions and personalized clips for players to watch during different situations and at different speeds. Additionally, he hopes to provide coaches with live playback to allow them to make better decisions during games. 

A major part of Shaffer’s job is also providing stats to the players and coaches. This is another tool the coaches can work off from to help their decision-making. 

“The numbers don’t lie, but the numbers don’t tell the whole story,” Shaffer said. “So it’s important to see that side of the book, and with these new skills that I’ve learned. That’s kind of what my goal is to help them there.” 

Looking ahead, Shaffer also notes the impact he hopes to leave on Loyola and the Men’s volleyball team. 

“Whenever I graduate, I would ideally leave a little bit of legacy behind, if you will, with Loyola,” Shaffer said.