Stanford’s Tara VanDerveer retires: College basketball’s all-time wins leader steps away after 38 seasons

Stanford ladies’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer, faculty basketball’s all-time wins chief, introduced her retirement on Tuesday night time after 38 seasons on the college. VanDerveer received 1,216 video games throughout her historic profession, and led the Cardinal to 3 nationwide championships. 

Negotiations are underway for Kate Paye, present affiliate head coach and a former participant beneath VanDerveer, to develop into the brand new head coach. VanDerveer, 70, will stay with the college and the athletic division in an advisory position. 

“Basketball is the best group mission there may be and I’m so extremely grateful for each one who has supported me and our groups all through my teaching profession,” VanDerveer acknowledged in a press launch. “I have been spoiled to educate the most effective and brightest at one of many world’s foremost establishments for practically 4 many years. 

“Coupled with my time at Ohio State and Idaho, and as head coach of the US Nationwide Workforce, it has been an unforgettable experience. The enjoyment for me was within the journey of every season, seeing a bunch of younger ladies work arduous for one another and kind an unbreakable bond. Successful was a byproduct. I’ve beloved the sport of basketball since I used to be somewhat lady, and it has given me a lot all through my life. I hope I have been in a position to give at the very least somewhat bit again.”

VanDerveer started her teaching profession at Idaho in 1978, and after two seasons was employed by Ohio State in 1980. She spent 5 seasons with the Buckeyes, main them to their first Elite Eight look in program historical past, earlier than leaving to take the Stanford job in 1985. 

She had been in Palo Alto ever since, the place she turned the Cardinal right into a nationwide powerhouse and received 5 nationwide Coach of the Yr Awards. After lacking the NCAA Match in her first two seasons with the Cardinal, VanDerveer took them to the Candy 16 in 1988. They haven’t missed the Large Dance since then. Beneath VanDerveer, Stanford received 15 Pac-12 Match championships, made 14 Remaining 4 appearances and received nationwide championships in 1990, 1992 and 2021. Stanford is one in every of 5 faculties with at the very least three titles and VanDerveer is likewise one in every of 5 coaches to perform the identical feat. 

“Tara’s title is synonymous with the game and girls’s basketball wouldn’t be what it’s immediately with out her pioneering work,” Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir acknowledged. “She has been dedicated to this campus for 40 years and a servant to all of the student-athletes who’ve come via her program. Tara constructed one of many sport’s iconic applications virtually instantly upon her arrival at Stanford, after which maintained that normal for practically 4 many years. 

“An brisk and constructive instructor, a Corridor of Famer, a trusted good friend and mentor, Tara’s influence is solely unmatched, and I do not suppose it is a stretch to characterize her as one of the vital influential individuals to ever be related to this college. We’ll expect to find the suitable methods to honor her deep influence and legacy right here at Stanford.”

Exterior of faculty basketball, VanDerveer additionally served as the top coach for the USA Basketball ladies’s nationwide crew. She briefly stepped away from Stanford throughout this era, and didn’t coach the Cardinal of their 1995-96 season. Throughout her tenure with USAB, she led Workforce USA to a bronze medal on the 1994 World Championships and a gold medal on the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. 

VanDerveer was inducted into the Girls’s Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2002 and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2011. 

A press convention that includes VanDerveer is scheduled for Wednesday.